Months-long strike at Kellogg's is over

After eleven long weeks, the strike at four American Kellogg’s factories is over. It has been quite a battle, but an agreement has been reached. The 1400 strikers are allowed to go back to work, even though management threatened to fire them all.

“No concessions whatsoever”

It has been one of the longest and fiercest social conflicts of the year in the United States, but the nearly three-month-long strike at Kellogg’s has come to an end. The employees from four cereal factories have reached a new provisional labour agreement. Everyone will resume work in the week of 27 December.

On 5 October, 1,400 members of staff went on strike, dissatisfied with the long working hours and the management’s plans to introduce less favourable working conditions for newer workers. Strikers complained that since the coronavirus pandemic, they had been working 16-hour days and sometimes had to work for weeks on end. The final straw was that management would henceforth restrict the benefits (such as medical insurance) of staff with less seniority.

The staff rejected several proposals, but now there is talk of a wage increase of 1.1 dollars per hour and additional cost allowances. The two-tier system will remain in place, meaning that newer workers get lower wages and fewer benefits than the more senior staff, but newcomers can move up tiers more quickly. Kellogg’s is also committing not to close any factories over the next five years. “This agreement makes gains and does not include any concessions”, Anthony Shelton, president of workers’ union BCTGM, told broadcaster NPR.

No 1,400 redundancies after all

For a while, it seemed as if the strikers were going to get the short end of the stick: a fortnight ago, management announced it would “permanently replace”, read: dismiss, the 1,400 strikers. However, this was met with fierce criticism, including from President Joe Biden. In the end, no employees on strike were replaced, and all strikers were offered a new five-year contract. Full-time employees hired during the strike will fill current vacancies.

The strains in the US labour market were exceptionally high last year. There are a record number of job openings (three for every two unemployed) and labour shortages everywhere. This gives staff the confidence to raise their demands: so far this year, more than 240 strikes have been counted in a country where unions are generally not as strong.