Not A Sweet Deal: Oreo and Chips Ahoy Workers Go on Strike

Things are not so sweet these days at the Nabisco production facility in Portland, Oregon. Workers at the plant where Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies are produced are on strike. Workers claim that unlike in most strike situations, they are not fighting for better wages or benefits, instead, they’re fighting to keep what they already have. The strike has now spread to other Mondelez International (owner of Nabisco) facilities across the United States. The workers at the Portland facility, who belong to the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union Local 364, claim that management is trying to eliminate the overtime pay that has been offered to workers assigned weekend shifts. Instead, Mondelez wants to move to a 40-hour work week where weekend hours will simply be part of regular shift hours. 

Mondelez has been moving to reduce its unionized workforce and today, it is just 50 percent of what it had been just a few years ago. The company has also negotiated agreements to restructure pensions and other benefits. Now, other union workers are standing with the Local 364 saying that the changes related to overtime pay that Mondelez is trying to achieve in Portland could have implications for other union workers. Striking workers also claim that Mondelez has indicated that if the overtime pay issue cannot be resolved, production could be moved to Mexico, an allegation that Mondelez denies, although the company did reduce its U.S. workforce in 2016, moving production to Mexico where wage rates are lower. For now, the dispute between management and labor appears to be at a standstill. Workers claim that while trucks are still be loaded with inventoried product, production lines in Portland have stopped, although representatives for Mondelez contend that contingency production plans have been activated and that supplies of the essential component of the cookies and milk snack will be unaffected. 

Discussion Question

Reflect on the transformation that has occurred over the past few years in the global economy. In a 24/7 world in which you can get Oreos and Chips Ahoy cookies delivered by Amazon to your door on Saturdays and Sundays, is it reasonable for the workers producing those cookies to ask for overtime pay for working on weekends?  

Sources: KOIN 6: AFL-CIO joins striking Nabisco workers on picket line, KATU2 ABC: Nabisco workers strike at Portland bakery over workweek, KOIN 6: AFL-CIO joins striking Nabisco workers on picket line, Reuters: Fact check: GA and NJ Nabisco plant closures not moving jobs to Mexico, parent company says, Photo by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash