Tony the Tiger turns a frosty shoulder… Earlier this week, Kellogg said it would replace 1.4K striking union workers at four US cereal factories after failing to reach a contract agreement. Workers have been striking since early October, demanding stronger benefits and higher pay after Kellogg’s business boomed on your pandemic snacking.
- For nine weeks, Kellogg has employed temp workers and imported cereal from as far away as Australia to keep Froot Loops on US shelves.
- Last week, Kellogg’s workers rejected a final offer that gave veteran workers a 3% pay bump and new workers a path to higher pay — but offered no new health benefits.
We’re (still) hiring… Job openings hit record highs this year as workers delayed returns and looked for better options. So corporate giants like Walmart, Amazon, and McDonald’s are pumping up wages and benefits to get you in their uniforms. This summer, wages jumped by the most in 20 years, though rising inflation is eating away at some of those paycheck gains. Worker strikes are yielding results:
- 10K striking Deere workers rejected two offers in October before accepting a contract that gave instant 10% raises and $8.5K bonuses. Frito-Lay and Kaiser-Permanente also struck deals with strikers.
- Kellogg is the first major example this year of big biz fighting back by replacing workers. It’s confident it can make Pop-Tarts without union labor, and last week it even raised its yearly sales forecast.
Workers have the upper hand… but employers don’t have to shake it. Labor is expected to stay tight in 2022, so worker strikes could continue — and employers might strike back. But there’ll likely be consequences for employers who do. President Biden and other Democrats want to make it illegal to replace strikers. And we’ve never seen this before: Pro-union TikTok and Reddit users have moved to sabotage Kellogg’s effort to hire replacement workers by clogging its hiring portal with bogus applications.