Why Workers Won Big in Henrico/Nabisco
“Workers Win Big”: More Headlines like this, please!
As American workers glimpse the post-COVID economy, they are finding something they have not had for decades — power. Employers are raising wages because workers now have the power to say no to poverty wages, and thousands of workers at four Nabisco plants won major victories, thanks to the power of their union, heightened public awareness about who is “essential.” With renewed courage, they walked out to the picket lines, and walked away with a new contract.
Americans understand the truth behind headlines about a labor shortage — plenty are ready to do these jobs, but not for poverty wages any longer. Workers are voting with their feet. We are also seeing how raising the floor of wages has started to raise salaries for workers further up the scale — while CNBC pundits want you to fear higher costs for the middle class, what we are actually seeing is higher salaries.
During the pandemic, the value, risks and lives of American workers were centered and humanized. The nameless workers in the shadows who are expected to survive on a federal minimum wage of $14,500 a year to make our economy work gained a new name and status — essential workers. Those making our restaurants, care facilities, and warehouses function have begun to ask a simple question of corporations and all of us as consumers: Now that you know we are essential, are you prepared to treat us that way?
Essential workers who made billions for their companies like Amazon and McDonalds during the pandemic have gotten mixed answers. Some progress, some setbacks.
And now… “THIS IS A MAJOR WIN!” These words, rare in recent years, from Richmond’s Nabisco factory workers became Sunday’s lead headline. Could such news be trending in the coming months and years?
Nabisco, like Amazon, saw profits skyrocket during the pandemic, making $5.5 billion in profits last year. During that time, they demanded employees work 12-hour shifts seven days a week so homebound covid consumers, like me, could binge on Oreos and Goldfish.
But the workers making our snacks had one thing the Amazon workers in Bessemer did not — a union. The results show why those brave workers in Alabama were willing to take on the most powerful corporation in America to get the right to bargain collectively. When Nabisco initially refused to let workers share in some of the profits they made possible and get greater workplace protections in this new world, the members of BCTGM made the difficult choice to vote for a strike.
Workers took real risks and pay cuts to join a picket line, not to mention hours marching in the heavy Virginia humidity. Those efforts paved the way for this victory — wages increased, health care benefits saved, fair pay for overtime shifts, and more reasonable working conditions.
Did they get everything they wanted? No — a negotiation is, well, a negotiation — give and take. But they had a forum for a real dialogue with the bosses, and ultimately all sides including management, reached an agreement.
This is what unions do. Help workers organize to raise wages and, as important, raise their voices and talk with management about resolving problems at work. And increasingly the American public sees that unions are what workers need. Gallup just reported that approval ratings for unions is at an all time high. This is what happens when we remember that behind every Cheez-it is a worker putting in long shifts who should be paid enough to keep their family out of poverty.
Which begs the question, if workers at Amazon or McDonalds had a union, how many more millions could have safer working conditions, more equitable wages and benefits, and more dignity at work? The public followed with real interest not seen in decades as a scrappy and inspiring group of workers in Bessemer, Alabama, (we’ll call them David) stood up to Goliath Amazon and tried to form a union. Goliath won that round — pulling out every nasty trick in the book — breaking enough rules that the workers likely will be getting a new election — another shot at forming a union. David is not done just yet.
Why do so few workers have unions when they clearly need them and the public supports their right to have them? A primary reason is that labor law lets Amazon and companies like them really put the squeeze on workers and make it close to impossible for them to be able to make a fair and independent choice. The PRO Act — supported by President Biden and a majority of voters– would change that and restore fairness — it is essential to restoring our democracy and rebuilding an economy that works for all of us, not just the Bezos billionaire crowd.
What the Nabisco workers and the Bakers union remind us is that there is real power in solidarity. Sounds like an old word but basically — I have your back and you have mine and together we can do better. When I walked the line at the factory outside Richmond, the shift was carried by retired Nabisco workers, holding the line while current workers were inside voting on the contract terms.
Retired workers — workers who could afford to retire after decades of service thanks to their union contract — had no personal stake in the new contract. But they talked of solidarity with the younger workers, remembering those who came before them and fought for the union in the first place. During negotiations, management tried to create a two-tiered system to protect current workers, but not future hires. The members and leaders of BCTGM said NO — no to temp workers and no to a two tiered system on benefits. Just like their elders were outside at that very moment having their backs, they had to have it for the workers yet to come. That is powerful. And that builds power.
