Kellogg’s workers vote to end months-long strike

Kellogg’s workers voted to ratify a new contract with the company, their union announced Tuesday, bringing an end to an 11-week strike that captured the nation’s attention. 

The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) said that its 1,400 Kellogg’s members backed the cereal maker’s most recent five-year contract offer that boosts pensions, maintains regular raises, ends the permanent two-tier pay structure and prevents plants from being shut down through October 2026. 

“Our entire Union commends and thanks Kellogg’s members,” BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton said in a statement. “From picket line to picket line, Kellogg’s union members stood strong and undeterred in this fight, inspiring generations of workers across the globe, who were energized by their tremendous show of bravery as they stood up to fight and never once backed down.”

The contract ratification will bring 1,400 Kellogg’s employees at plants in Michigan, Nebraska, Tennessee and Pennsylvania back to work for the first time since they began striking on Oct. 5.

The Kellogg Company cheered the agreement Tuesday and said that it would welcome its employees back to work.

“The new, five-year contract furthers our employees’ leading wages and benefits, with immediate, across the board wage increases and enhanced benefits for all,” Kellogg spokesperson Kris Bahner said in an email. “It also provides an accelerated, defined path to legacy wages and benefits for transitional employees, among other items.”

The labor union’s members repeatedly rejected contract offers from the Kellogg Company. The reversal came after the cereal giant said that it would replace all of the striking workers, a statement that sparked criticism from prominent government officials, including Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersRepublican senator texted Joe Manchin about joining GOP Kellogg’s workers vote to end months-long strike Manchin’s ‘intervention’ may have saved the Democratic Party — for now MORE (I-Vt.), Labor Secretary Marty WalshMarty WalshKellogg’s workers vote to end months-long strike Biden administration unveils efforts to add to trucking workforce minimum wage for federal contractors will take effect on Jan. 30 MORE and President BidenJoe BidenCollins open to negotiating overhaul of child tax credit set to expire Sounding the alarm on the administration’s recent action on abortion pills Overnight Health Care — Biden lays out omicron playbook MORE.

“Permanently replacing striking workers is an existential attack on the union and its members’ jobs and livelihoods,” Biden said in a statement earlier this month. “And such action undermines the critical role collective bargaining plays in providing workers a voice and the opportunity to improve their lives while contributing fully to their employer’s success.”

Shelton on Tuesday thanked AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and other labor advocates for mobilizing support for the strike, crediting them for keeping the pressure on the Kellogg Company.   

“Solidarity was critical to this great workers’ victory,” he said.