Ah, excellent, Chris, that's good. That's good. That's the kind of a tonal grunting that people have come to express respect from the introductions of my podcast. I was hoping it wouldn't be that, but then it was so bad that it was great thrill. That's our brand now, it can't be anything else. We've We've established it. Look, nobody else is doing that. The Cometown guys, I assume aren't a tonally grunting to start their podcast. I don't know, actually,
but I assume not. I guess this is just how we are at It could happen here is a podcast. You don't sound like you believe it enthusiastically, Chris, with feeling this is a podcast is happening here? That yeah, excellent, That's how we do it. Okay, what are we talking about today? Well, one of the things that has happened here, as we have discussed briefly in previous episodes, is a bunch of strikes, and with us today to talk about
one of these strikes, specifically the Collogg strike. Is Mel Buwer, an independent researcher, educator, and freelance journalist based in Omaha, Nebraska, where this particular strike is taking place. Who has done done a lot of journalism previously on the local Protestant uprising the street and is also researching and writing a book on alternative media. Hi. Hello, we'll welcome to the show. Strikes Strikes apparently is what's up? It is? It is Strictober.
We're doing strikes strike wave baby. Ye. So this this specific strike, UM, why don't can you can you walk us through a bit about how we got to the point where this Kellogg's factory is on strike? Um? Well, first off, it's four plants. It's all for American kellogg Cereal plants have gone on strike. Um. The workers and these plans are represented by the bakery, confectionery tobacco workers in Grain Miller's International Union. I do love that bakeries
and tobacco workers are in the same union. Yeah that's yeah. Yeah. So UM, their contract was up for renegotiation in actually UM and UM due to a series of weird things happening, they pushed the negotiations to UM. They renegotiate their contract every five years, UM and at stake. This year UM was a sort of pushing back against a recently introduced to tier employment system that they company sort of strong armed the union into which essentially is not it's not
a good deal for anyone. UM. In they pushed in this sort of two tier system where one tier is a lower transitional tier and one tier is a legacy or full time employee tier. UM. And what it is is that, you know, it amounts to a difference of twelve bucks an hour and less benefits. UM. Yes, yes, UM. Dan Osborne recently did an interview with Max Salvarez at Working People podcast and he really kind of talked about exactly what was going on there. UM. And you know,
there's fourteen hundred people who work in four plants. There's about four employees at the Omaha plant, which has been around for decades. And UM, Essentially, what this tier system does is it's capped at of their union workforce. And the whole idea is as these full time employees retire or quit, than these transitional employees will sort of be funneled into the full time tier. Right over the last
five years, that hasn't really happened really at all. UM. It was a bad deal from the start according to many of the workers who sort of felt like they you know, they were backed into a wall because Kellogg's was threatening to close the Memphis plant if they didn't ratify this negotiated contract. So rather than experience, you know,
five layoffs in Memphis, they just agreed to it. So they knew going to the negotiating table in that they were going to try and sort of walk that back because these workers all work in the same plant, same
days for a second third shift. Transitional workers are working side by side with these full time employees, working the same hours, which can amount to seven days a week twelve the sixteen hours a day on mandatory over time, and they are making twelve dollars an hour less and they are not getting the benefits that these full time employees are getting. So really, these full time employees are
kind of going to bat for the transitional employees. Um, Kelloggs wants to remove the cap which the union negotiated, which is at of their workforce. They wanted to do that, do away with that so that they can continue hiring more transitional workers, and they want to funk with the insurance benefits. So, uh, the union tried to negotiate this.
I think according to the local union president, Kelloggs negotiators were at the negotiating table for ten hours, and they negotiated eight hours a day, five days a week for two weeks, ten hours there at the table. So they weren't interested in negotiating a contract. They had laid out their their terms and they essentially told the union to go kick rocks. And so the union said, you know, we have we have until October five and then our contract is up, and if we haven't ratified a new contract,
then we're going out on strike. And that's ultimately what happened. So they've been on strike for this will be their fourteenth day today. I think the fight against the two tier system, I think is an interesting part of this because that's been a huge part of a lot of the different strikes you been seeing. This is with John
Deer strikes, is part of the Kaiser strikes. And yeah, I'm wondering what you think specifically about the fact that this is like this is the moment that people have decided to like push back against against two or even three tier systems they were introduced in the last really
like ten or fifteen years. For the most part, Well, I think it's just, you know, it's a divide and conquer strategy for Kellogg's or for these other companies, And ultimately what it looks like is it destabilizes well established unions, especially at Kellogg's. UM and UM, it pits workers against each other, you know, UM, particularly at Kellogg's. If they're able to remove this cap on this tier system, UM, what they're so actually doing is they're creating a more
precarious workplace for these workers. UM. The turnover rate and the lower tier at the Omaha plant is right around UM. And you know, prior to you didn't really see a whole lot of people leaving the Kellogg's plant. You know, these were These are workers who are spending their entire careers at this plant. Their parents work their their grandparents
work there. You know. UM, they because they're all getting paid around the same amount of money, there isn't this tension on the line, so they're they're working with each other, they're helping each other, right, UM. And with this tier system, what they're doing is they're throwing these newer workers into uh pretty uh insane factory conditions, UM and making it really difficult for them to uh I feel like they have any reason to stay there. Right. A lot of
these people will you know, put in. Some of these workers were transitional workers who weren't officially hired by the company. You know, there aren't full time employees. They aren't receiving benefits like the full time employees are. For five years. They worked this every day, seven days a week, three months on end. Right. Uh, they have this really you know punitive attendance based points system that discourages you calling in sick. There's injuries that happened in the factory all
the time. You know. I went out to the line and wrote a piece for the Real News about this, and pretty much every person I talked to showed me scars from accidents that happened, injuries in the plant. Um. The union president himself got his hand stuck in a like a mill and broke all the fingers in his hand. He had to have ten surgeries on his hand. You know. Um, there was an accident at the plant two or three weeks ago where a transitional employee got both arms stuck
in a conveyor belt. You know. Um. The thing is is these folks super proud of the work that they do, Like absolutely take this work extremely seriously. You know, they're not even asking for changes to their overtime. They are not asking for, you know, anything that you know, for me on the outside, i'd be fighting for more humane
working conditions. But to them, you know, it's it's not like it's a point of pride, but they feel that they have put blood, sweat, tears, uh, you know, fractured relationships, time that they could be spending with their children into this factory, and Kelloggs is essentially fucking them over. You know.
They see it as we have sacrificed for this company for years and years and years um and we are asking for equal pay for all and for everyone to have the same health care so that we can do this job, you know, and Kelloggs is saying no, absolutely know. I think the union president said that some of the negotiators called those demands outlandish during negotiations, which I think
is just incredible, you know, just corporate greed. Yeah. I think the other part of the story is that, like I mean, it's kind of a weird consequence of it, but like one of the things, one of those consequences is sort of like rising like staple commodity price, staple grain prices and stuff. Is that Kellogg's like they're doing they have like record, they have record profits right now and they're still just doing this ship because yeah, they
made record profits during the pandemic. They gave their CEO pretty hufty raise bonus. Um, there was a stock buyback program that helped. Happened among the c suite folks last year. They made a lot of money, a lot of money.
And um, you know, these workers worked every day through the pandemic, um continually understaffed, you know, um, doing their best because again, they takes this job very seriously and they are proud that they are feeding the American people, you know, Um, and they are proud to work at Kellogg's. And they feel that this contract is just shit, it's
just ship. And you know the only sensible thing to do is to to walk out on strike because you know, they've been backed into a corner and negotiations have stagnated completely, you know. UM, and UM, they don't want to they don't want to back down from this, you know. Um. They and I agree. I feel what they're what they're asking for is fair. It's very fair. I mean I think it's I think asking for a lot more would
be fair. But yeah, that's not my place to be doing One of the things that strikes me about that you talk about this tier system that Kellogg's introduced, which I can't help but think of what happened that John Deere where they I think in nineties six cut pensions by two thirds and then like last year eliminated them entirely.
And this kind of bid to pit chunks of the workforce against each other, um where you have like you know, different groups making different amounts and sort of like, I don't know, it seems kind of like the strategy that you see in the broader economy, like written within within the space of a company, where you've got like some people who are getting pretty well taken care of in their jobs and other newer people who are who are getting more screwed over in kind of this this attempt
to create division within the workforce so that this this
kind of organizing doesn't happen. M I would agree. And you also have to think, you know, if they are able to remove this cap on the transitional tier, but that means that is they'll be able to instead of say, say a full time employee retires, they leave that space empty, but they still need an extra space, an extra person, right, so they can just hire a transitional worker and out of funneling one of those transitional workers into that full
time space. Ah, what ends up happening is suddenly you have instead of seventy full time to transitional. The it starts tipping right, it becomes a more precarious workforce. Then say, for example, to do that in the next five years. You know, now they have seventy percent of these transitional workers who don't think the union is offering anything for them. They can essentially just offer a better deal to these transitional workers and kick the union out of the company
at some point. You know, um, and these folks on the line understand that and know that that's kind of Kellogg's plan, right, You know that the Kelloggs, what Kelloggs is trying to do is essentially destabilize the power of the union inside the plants. And everyone on the line
that I've spoken with know exactly what's happening. You know, And these full time employees are out there every day making sure that their transitional and you know, colleagues know that that's why they're out there because they want to not allow this to be something that divides their workforce. It remains to be seen, what's going to happen, you know what I mean. They've brought in scabs to get the plant up and running again, and most recently, uh,
yesterday this morning. Yesterday, the Building and Construction Trades Council union met with the union president in Omaha because they have about a hundred third party iron workers, carpenters, electricians and skilled trades people that are union trades people that have contracts at Kellogg's, and they came to what Dan Osborne, the union president, decided called was a tough decision that those union workers are going to cross the picket line
to honor those contracts. So Kelloggs is forcing the union is in the city in like into a bind really because they're they're you know, uh going to lose their own contracts at Kellogg's. So that's kind of been like the most recent development here is that rather than just temps coming in, we have now skilled union trades people from various Omaha unions who are also crossing the picket line two honor their contracts at Kellogg's, you know, um past these striking workers. So it's a bit of a mess,
a little bit, you know. Yeah, there's so much going on right now, I'm kind of wondering what you think are the because we've got a number of strikes kind of all coming to ahead at the same time, I'm wondering, specifically from the Kellogg strike, what do you think are kind of the lessons that should be taken from what's happened so far for the broader labor movement. UM. I think the biggest thing that's kind of impacted me as
I've gone to the line. UM, I've stood on the picket line, I've covered these you know, this strike, I've talked to people, UM, is that when these types of actions happen, they really only can be sustained because the community comes together to support them. You know. Um, these strike funds that are going around and folks showing up to stand on the picket line who are not part of the union are really sort of become you know, they are helping support these workers who can only hold
out so long with finite resources. Right. So, the big thing to me is that past these news cycles of excitement of striked ober of you know these people just walked out today, well they may be you know, they may be on the line for months and months on end, and the new cycles going to move on, and these communities are still going to have to try and and and back up these labor actions, right um. You really can't have true you know, you can't have a labor
movement without you know, support, right um. And that's kind of been the biggest thing that has impacted me particularly. You know this Almaha used to be a really formidable union time. You know, back in the eighties. It was really really something to see that the business unions in in the various locals here really had some of these union leaders had more political power than the mayor, right um. And that has gone downhill over the last forty years.
And it's really cool to see, uh, the level of solidarity that's happening amongst the community, you know, um, in the ways in which people are kind of coming out to talk to and and be a part of this strike and to remind these Kellogg's workers that they're not operating in a bubble, you know, and that the rest of the community really hopes that the strike will and quickly and peacefully and with a really good resolution for
these workers. You know. Onever thing I wanted to ask about in in terms of sort of this this kind of researchtion to the union movements and in in in terms of sort of communities support is the level of violence that there's been against like against the strikes. I've seen a lot of like stuff about people canna hit my busses and like, and I don't I don't know if I think I think I'm getting my strikes. I don't don't know if they they've been direct car attacks
on this specific picket line. But that's when I think that it's been happening a lot and a couple of documented cases. Yeah, yeah, and yeah, I was wondering what you think about that, and like what actually can be done about the fact that like you know that you know, like this just the fact that we're just seeing auto attacks on picket lines regularly, now, I mean that's you know,
it's a it's a shitty development. You know. Um, I was out on the picket line last Thursday, and um, they were attempting to bring in buses at shift change past the the picketers who walk slowly. You know, they don't want to stop in front of the bus. It's illegal to stop and and you know, make it, you know, so that they can't pass through the gates. But they slow them down for a little bit. And UM, one gentleman was trying, you know, was standing there and this
bus just bumped right into them. You know. There's videos that have been shared through local news of buses knocking down workers as they're trying to cross the picket line. UM. And I you know there are also personal vehicles that go through, and it could be the private security that's been hired, it could be managers. UM. But you know, they're running through these lines really quickly dangerously. It's unfortunate, and you know, I don't have an answer for what
the best h solution for that is. You know, but vehicle tax have become sort of more uh, I don't want to say commonplace, but you see them happening a lot both at protests last year, and you know, I think Warrior met Cole had some bosses running through the lines and being reckless with their vehicles. You know. Um, the problem is is on the on the back end, the police don't step in when they see these instances,
you know. UM. And in fact, last Thursday, when we had a hundred plus motorcyclists from various mcs show up to support the strike, UM, the police were the ones who protected the scabs and made sure that they made it through the picket line. So you know, UM, the answer to that, I'm not sure. You know. Yeah, I
mean that's a time honored police tradition. Yeah, they historically don't don't exist to protect laborers, with the notable exception of of the sheriff and what was that Mattawan and uh during the um the coal miner strike in West Virginia. M well yeah they shot him so well yeah, but they shot some people first. Yeah, Um, sid Hatfield that was the name. Yeah, I don't know. Um, I've gotten to know some of these folks on the line of the last two weeks, and they're just fantastic human beings,
you know. Um, they are accommodating and hard working, and they come from all age brackets and they bring their families out and um, you know they're getting they're getting a raw deal from Kellogg's and UM. So far, the community support has been overwhelmingly positive. Um. There hasn't really been like at the John Deer strike. They're not getting eggs thrown out of them, you know. UM, they get a lot more honking and messages of support than they do.
People driving by to yell at them for uh, you know, being a strike. So that's been nice to see, you know. Um. And actually this weekend on Saturday, um, there's gonna be a like cool vintage car show cruise around Kellogg's event that they've got planned. The fire departments bringing rigs and um teamsters, yes, yeah, and the teamsters are bringing cars and there's a bunch of vintage car clubs that are
gonna be coming out. So you know, those types of things have like really kind of like fired up these people to keep them out on the line as long as they need to be, you know, so communities there
for him. One of the things I'm continuing to wonder about is what it takes to close the gap between understanding that you and your colleagues are getting screwed over by this system and understanding that you and all of the other people striking at the same time, and perhaps even a bunch of people not striking, are all kind of fighting the same fight. And then maybe there's grander things to achieve than the negotiation of a single contract, because that seems like the big leap that is going
to be the real struggle to clear. Uh yeah, you know, um I will say that some of the workers are fully aware that this is not just about a single contract negotiation, and it is actually, you know, more about struggles of the working class against corporate greed and the ways in which the working class gets their asses handed to them all the time, um um. And they know that they know that at some point, perhaps at some point in the future, someone else is going to look
at their example and be inspired by it. Right. Um. As far as like maybe I don't know, ideologically speaking or politically speaking, for these folks, it's uh, doesn't fit into any sort of ideology leftist or conservative or whatever. Everyone's got their own personal politics. But they don't really talk about it on the line. What they talk about is working class versus ruling class. Um that you know,
that's their sense. It's corporate greed, it's um asshole CEO is making eleven point six million dollars a year while they're struggling to pay their own bills, you know, um. And and you know that conversation is more common than um. Trying to fit this into a larger political movement or revolutionary movement, if that makes sense, you know, yeah, um.
But I would say that the vast majority of the workers, regardless of their own personal politics, have very clear sense of where they sit in terms of class consciousness and understand that this is one of one of the most effective tactics to try and force the hand of these assholes. You know, UM is to withhold work and withhold their labor. So well, this has been great. I mean that's everything I had to ask Chris. Anything else not that not that I have. So there is there a call to action?
We could have our listeners or pages people should be following strike fund Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a go fund me and there's a PayPal set up for the Omaha strikers. I believe the b C t g M International page has like a page of each of the strike funds for each of the four plants. So that might be something that you might not want to share with your listeners. I can send you an email with that, UM because it's probably going to be easier to do UM. But yeah, as far as I know, b C t g M
isn't called for an official boycott of Kellogg's products. However, they wouldn't be mad if you just didn't buy any right now. There was some talk last week that some of the picketers might you know, be flying outside of grocery stores to try and educate the community on what's
going on with this strike. But beyond that, they also are concerned about the quality of the food being produced by scabs, so it probably would be healthy for you to not by the food, you know, because I think it was in what two thousand eighteen during the works a lockout in Memphis, the same company that they brought in then that they're bringing in now uh piste in the cereal on the line, and they didn't release video of that for two years after the incident, so it
ended up in someone's home, you know, GROSSI yikes. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty fun, right. Um. So yeah, you know, support your local strike fund and if you are in a city where Kellogg's plant is striking, I'm sure those workers would love love too to hear from you, Fiel your support. So and where can our listeners follow you? I am on Twitter primarily at cold Brood Tool. I don't know why I picked that name, but yeah, yeah, I got it. I haven't changed that handle since I got into Twitter,
so um, but yeah, that's usually where I'm at. Otherwise, you know, I teach locally and had to have a podcast that I'm developing and do a bunch of different projects. So Twitter is the best way to get a hold of me if you have questions. Awesome, all right, thanks for having me on folks, Thanks for thanks for joining us. I'll be back at the picket line, you know, talking to these folks, and I'm going to do my best to keep this ship in the new cycles so that
they aren't forgotten. So we've got a link to the strike Fund and some other ways to help me in the description. So yeah, this has been It could Happen Here Pod. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram at Happened Here Pod, and at cool Zone Media for all the rest of our shows. It could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone Media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening,