The Kellogg Company (NYSE: K) is facing a nationwide strike after workers at its four U.S. plants walked out on Tuesday. The company is currently considering the use of salaried and non-union hourly workers to restart production.
"I agreed to work here for certain things that they promised they would do with benefits and wages," striker Travis Huffman, a worker at Kellogg's Battle Creek, Michigan factory, told the Battle Creek Enquirer. "You work weekends and occasionally get forced over 16 hours a day, and now they want to take those things away from me. Missed enough time with my family and friends because of those things, and I'm not going to work here for less."
Huffman joined thousands of co-workers in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Nebraska in protest after the firm's five-year contract with the Bakery Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union expired. Contract negotiations have been tense, marked by layoffs and the looming threat of outsourcing to Mexico.
"The majority of employees working under this Master Contract enjoy a CPG (consumer packaged goods) industry-leading level of pay and benefits, which include above-market wages and pension or 401(k). The average 2020 earnings for the majority of RTEC employees was $120,000. Most employees under this contract have unparalleled, no-cost comprehensive health insurance, while less senior employees have the same health insurance as our salaried employees, but with much lower employee contributions," a Kellogg's spokesperson said.
The Union, however, is only one component of a larger problem facing many employers. While not directly related to the ongoing labor shortage, the strike by Kellogg's workers is a symptom of the same issue that has perpetuated it; a growing antipathy towards low-wage, high-stress work (best illustrated by the "we all quit" incident). Many workers, emboldened by the harsh experiences of attempting to navigate the pandemic, have taken greater initiatives to seek out higher paying employment, have begun to abandon and ignore low-wage jobs.