Some 1,400 workers at breakfast cereal maker Kellogg at four locations in the United States voted against the deal negotiated between management and the union representing them, continuing a strike that began on October 5.
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“Our members have spoken. The strike continues, ”said a statement from the BCTGM union on Tuesday.
The organization does not specify the results of the ballot held on Sunday, but emphasizes that the agreement was rejected “massively”.
The company confirmed in a separate message that affected employees at factories in Battle Creek (Michigan), Omaha (Nebraska), Lancaster (Pennsylvania) and Memphis (Tennessee) voted against the collective agreement to set working conditions for the next five years.
She says she now wants to take a new step and hire new employees to replace the strikers.
“Even if this is absolutely not the result we wanted to achieve, we must take the necessary measures to ensure the continuity of our business,” says Kellogg.
The strikers oppose above all the perpetuation of a category of new employees who do not have access to the same benefits, maintained in the agreement reached last week with some adjustments compared to the initial proposal.
The management, which initially wanted to remove the automatic adjustment of wages to the cost of living, seemed to have made a gesture on this important point at a time of high inflation: it proposed a salary increase of 3% this year and then the adjustment to the cost of living, but only for employees with more than 4 years of seniority.
The start of the strike by Kellogg employees coincided with several other labor movements in the country, including the more than a month’s work stoppage of around 10,000 workers at tractor manufacturer John Deere. The word “Striketober”, a contraction of “strike” and “October”, appeared on social networks.
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