APWU Stands with BCTGM as Workers rally at Nabisco/ Mondelēz Shareholder Meeting

Wednesday morning Nabisco workers from across the country joined together to rally at the site of the annual Mondelēz International shareholders meeting in Lincolnshire, IL. Workers were protesting the company’s continued outsourcing practices, which is hurting American workers and their families.

Mondelēz International, the owners of Nabisco, has been sending good union jobs to their factory in Salinas, Mexico. In Salinas, an average worker’s pay is so low that the minimum wage is measured by the day, not the hour, and stands at a paltry $4 per day.

The BCTGM, which represents nearly 4,000 workers who make Nabisco snack products, launched the “Check the Label” campaign in 2016 to stop Mondelēz International, from outsourcing jobs.

Corporate Greed Cheats Chicago

Mondelēz CEO Irene Rosenfeld rakes in $19.67 million annually, or 300 times more than her employees, but she decided to fatten her paycheck even more at the expense of union workers.

During the summer of 2015, Rosenfeld decided not to invest the money to upgrade to the company’s Nabisco plant in Chicago’s Southwest Side. At the time, the Chicago plant was the company’s largest bakery in the country, employing 1,200 workers. It had been open since the 1950s, supporting generations of working families.

The BCTGM workers saw through Rosenfeld’s excuse that the company and the union could not come to a contract agreement, knowing that outsourcing the jobs was the company’s plan all along. The contract between Mondelēz and the workers represented by BCTGM didn’t expire until Feb. 29, 2016 – nearly six months after Rosenfeld’s decision.

Instead of upgrading the facility, Mondelēz shut down nine of the 16 Chicago production lines in August 2015, and relocated them to new facilities in Mexico. Six hundred jobs were lost.

Chicagoan Mike Smith, 59, was laid off last March and addressed delegates the 2016 APWU National Convention. “This is corporate greed at its worst and it must stop,” he said.

APWU delegates voted to endorse a boycott of Nabisco products made in Mexico.

Check the Label

There are two ways to find out of a Nabisco product was made in Mexico.

Check for the words “Made in Mexico” on the packaging.

Also check the plant identification code. Don’t buy products labeled “MM” (Monterey, Mexico) or “MS” (Salinas, Mexico). Buy AE (Chicago), AH (Portland, OR), AP (Fairlawn, NJ), AX (Atlanta), AZ (Richmond, VA) or XL (Naperville, IL).

Products to check include: Oreos, Newtons, Chips Ahoy, Honey Grahams, Animal Crackers, Ritz Crackers, Premium, Belvita, Lorna Doone, Teddy Grahams, Honey Maid and Wheat Thins.

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