BCTGM Local 300 held a press conference today outside the Chicago Nabisco bakery.
Larry Cohen, former President of Communications Workers of America and current Labor Chair for the Bernie Sanders campaign, delivered a dynamic speech focused on the impact of America’s failing trade policies on American workers. “Wherever the wages are cheaper, that’s where they go,” said Cohen. “When does it stop? And the real question is, when do we stop it?”
Saying the decision by Mondelēz to move the production lines out of Chicago is an “all-too-typical story about greed.” Cohen said the jobs were being lost “for no reason except higher profits. This is a productive, profitable plant that’s been here for generations.”
In addition to Cohen, Local 300 members and retirees were joined at the event by representatives of BCTGM Local 1 (Chicago) as well as 22nd Alderman Ricardo Munoz. “This is a human story. How do you want Little Village, Austin, Englewood, the south side and north side to have homes where people can pay for mortgages when we’re allowing this travesty to happen?” said Munoz.
“As a community, we have to unite to back Nabisco workers,” Cohen said. “We have to have a political movement. Otherwise it’s just another fight like this one after another,” he concluded.
The National contract between Mondelēz International and more than 2,000 of its 4,000 workers represented by the BCTGM expired at midnight on February 29. BCTGM International President David Durkee and International Secretary of the International Union of Food Workers (IUF) Ron Oswald recently met to discuss a global strategy to combat efforts by Mondelēz to dismantle workers’ collective bargaining rights. The IUF and its affiliates represent 2.5 million workers in 126 countries, including Mondelēz manufacturing workers in more than 30 countries.
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- Larry Cohen
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- Local 1 joins in solidarity
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- Local 300 Pres. Ed Burpo
Check out these local media links to coverage of the event:
WGNTV: http://wgntv.com/2016/03/02/nabisco-workers-protest-impending-layoffs/
ABC 7: http://abc7chicago.com/news/downsizing-at-chicago-nabisco-plant-draws-political-spotlight/1228385/
Fox 32: http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/local/99839184-story