Kellogg’s is letting go 1400 American employees who have been on strike for two months demanding better working conditions. The staff refused a 3 % wage increase and demanded more time off.
“Treated worse than machinery”
Kellogg’s has been in turmoil since October, when thousands of employees in several American states went on strike. The employees are protesting against long working hours, redundancy plans and the introduction of a new two-tier system, under which newer workers would receive lower pay and fewer benefits.
Union representatives complained that they worked 80-hour weeks and sometimes more than 100 days in a row, seven days a week, with no weekends off. This was necessary to keep up with the increased demand caused by the pandemic, but now they want their rewards rather. “For 28 days the machines run then rest three days for cleaning. They don’t even treat us as well as they do their machinery“, one disgruntled employee previously told The Guardian.
Not fired but “replaced”
Last week, it seemed an agreement might be reached when the management proposed a 3 % pay rise. However, that proposal was eventually rejected by a majority of the staff. Now, the board is taking radical measures: legally, the strikers cannot be dismissed, but they can be replaced permanently. And that is exactly what Kellogg’s plans on doing.
Meanwhile, the factories are being kept running by many external interim and temporary workers. Managers also have to step in regularly. Still, it is questionable whether the cornflakes producer will be able to find that many replacements: since the Covid pandemic, there has been an acute shortage of labour in the US. Many vacancies remain unfilled. The unions, meanwhile, are not giving up the fight and say they will continue to strike.
