Fighting For Better Pay, Benefits And Respect, Workers At Kellogg, Deere And Other Companies Are Walking Off Their Jobs In A New “Striketober” Movement

There is a growing, simmering anger and resentment building in the workplace. It first manifested in the Great Resignation movement. Millions of Americans quit their jobs. 

These were mostly front-line workers who were herald at the start of the pandemic. We appreciated that they risked their health and safety by delivering food and packages, toiling in warehouses and fulfillment centers, driving us when we were concerned to take busses and subways, and meeting other needs while white-collar office professionals remained safely ensconced at home. As the outbreak worsened, many of these folks were fired or furloughed.

Once restrictions were loosened and people were able to go outside again, there was a dramatic, nearly insatiable need for workers at restaurants, bars, hotels, airlines, sporting events, concerts, supermarkets, retail stores, shops and department stores. 

This time it was different. No one thanked the waiters, bartenders, retail store clerks or other blue-collar workers. They had to deal with surly customers, people who didn’t wear masks, long, constantly changing hours, low pay and little to no growth potential. Workers quit their jobs en masse, believing that there has to be a better way to earn a living and get treated with respect and dignity. 

We’ve now entered the next phase. This month over 100,000 workers are threatening to wall off their jobs or strike in a new movement called “Striketober.” Low wages, lackluster benefits and unfair treatment are some of the reasons cited for this new trend. 

Time reports  that “In the first five days of October alone, there were 10 strikes in the U.S., including workers at Kellogg plants in Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee; school bus drivers in Annapolis, Md.; and janitors at the Denver airport.” That doesn’t include the “nearly 60,000 union members in film and television production who nearly unanimously voted to grant their union’s president the authority to call a strike.”

More than 1,400 Kellogg employees walked out on October 5 at a number of cereal maker plants across the country. The union said the  action was taken over a contract dispute concerning health care, retirement benefits, holiday and vacation pay. The workers and union also contend that the company threatened to move American jobs to Mexico.

The Kellogg Company has called the union claims “grossly misleading,” and said it has “not proposed moving any serial volume of jobs outside of the U.S.” According to Newsweek, the “company has posted a job advert seeking temporary workers to replace those currently on strike at the company’s cereal production plants across the country.”

 During the summer, over 600 Frito-Lay workers at a plant in Topeka, Kansas, walked off the job in protest over their working conditions and forced overtime. Factory workers at Nabisco plants went on strike in August to protest plans by Nabisco’s parent, Mondelez International, to move some work to Mexico, among other issues. 

According to the Associated Press, More than 24,000 nurses and other health care workers at Kaiser Permanente, one of the country’s largest healthcare systems,  authorized a strike, threatening to walk out over pay and working conditions.

A Kaiser Permanente spokesperson said about the matter, “We ask that our employees reject a call to walk away from the patients who need them. Our priority is to continue to provide our members with high-quality, safe care. In the event of any kind of work stoppage, our facilities will be staffed by our physicians along with trained and experienced managers and contingency staff.”

 In the first major walkout in more than thirty years, over 10,000 Deere & Co. workers went on strike Thursday. They complained about poor pay, benefits and working conditions. The workers pointed out their pay was nominal relative to the company’s record profits and CEO’s substantial $14.7 million compensation package.

 Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren supported the strike, saying, “Workers have gotten the short end of the stick for decades now.” She added that in the past the government “stayed on the side of the giant corporations,” and “That’s beginning to change.”

 Brad Morris, vice president of labor relations for Deere, said in a statement, “We are determined to reach an agreement with the UAW that would put every employee in a better economic position and continue to make them the highest paid employees in the agriculture and construction industries,” and  “We will keep working day and night to understand our employees’ priorities and resolve this strike.”

The rallying cry during the Covid-19 outbreak was “We are all in this together.” The cruel reality is that the pandemic resulted in the rich getting richer. The billionaires saw their collective net worth leap by the multi billions. Knowledge workers were inconvenienced, but they were able to work safely from the comforts of their homes and mostly earned their salaries. 

On social media we are bombarded with giddy nouveau riche bragging how much money they are making trading meme stocks, cryptocurrencies, Spacs and NFTs. Unicorn startups have minted millionaires overnight for their founders, executives and some lucky employees. CEOs of major corporations maintained their lush pay packages and guys like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk became richer than anyone could ever imagine. 

U.S billionaires saw their wealth surge $1.8 trillion during the pandemic, according to a report from Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality. This occurred while over 86 million Americans lost jobs during the virus outbreak. The ranks of billionaires have bloomed to about 708 as of August. The aggregate $4.7 trillion net worth, as of August 17, is  greater than the total net worth of the bottom 50% of Americans.

Juxtapose this with the average waitress, warehouse worker or Uber driver. They are eking out a meager existence while watching others get rich. This isn’t an indictment of capitalism, it’s just shows how the pandemic widened the wealth gap between Americans.

The long term results of such a large discrepancy in wealth and power could turn America into a modern day medieval feudalistic type of society in which there are a small number of incredibly wealthy people controlling the economy with help from a coterie of lawyers, accountants, money managers and management consultant advisors. The rest of the population will do the grunt work for low pay, little dignity and shabby treatment. It’s no wonder why workers are trying to form unions and going on strike.