Transnational cereal maker Kellogg's has locked out 220 members of the IUF-affiliated BCTGM since October 22 at its factory in Memphis, Tennessee in an effort to force union acceptance of a plan to radically increase the use of casual workers. With this plan all newly employed workers would be employed as casuals with no guaranteed hours at significantly lower pay and benefits, effectively transforming over time the entire employment structure at the facility. The company calls this "The New Workforce of the Future".
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Kellogg's calls this "The New Workforce of the Future".
If the company succeeds, these precarious workers will earn USD 6.00 less per hour or $12,480 less per year before overtime and would receive inferior medical and pension benefits.
Kellogg's organized this assault while the Master Agreement of 2012, which limits casual work, is still in force. The union insists that casual work must be negotiated within the framework of the agreement - and their members are watching the end of year festivities approach from the street side of the factory gate.
To add to the pressure, BCTGM members at the company's plant in London, Ontario (Canada) were suddenly informed on December 11 that their plant would close sometime in 2014, with the loss of some 500 union jobs. Some of the production will go to Memphis, where the company hopes to manufacture the product with casual labour. Some will go to a non-union plant in Belleville, Ontario opened last year.
The Memphis workers and their union are battling for the future of the next generation of Kellogg's workers and for the defense of negotiated standards against the expansion of disposable jobs.
