The Kellogg’s Strike is a Feminist Issue
Worker’s rights are women’s rights, women’s rights are worker’s rights.
In the beginning of October, around 1,400 workers started striking for better working conditions at Kellogg’s cereal producing plants across the US. The striking workers were seeking better policies regarding health care, holidays, retirement benefits, and vacation time. Kellogg’s rejected their demands and attempted to replace the striking workers for a few weeks, even though the workers were only asking for dignity and a better quality of life for keeping the company going.
In December 2021, the workers actually won after months of striking with a pay raise and a moratorium on plant closures. The victory is stunning, and it teaches us a lesson about workers’ rights. I want to urge feminists to start framing workers’ rights issues as a feminist issue specifically. Marxist feminists already frame strikes in this way, but I think it’s important to emphasize that any strike that seeks better working conditions for workers in the food and service area should automatically be seen as a reproductive labor issue, and therefore, as an extension of the unequal division of labor that constructs society. As such, supporting workers who are seeking better conditions to continue reproducing the world is a feminist issue.
