Waging War for Better Wages

Striketober is over, but Strikesgiving is just beginning

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

During the month of October 2021, we saw over a dozen union strikes throughout the United States — many of which are still in progress today. Virtually all of these protests focus on better wages, benefits, and working conditions for employees.

Large corporations have recently started implementing “Two-Tiered Systems” to further exploit new hires. Both Kellogg’s and Kaiser Permanente have made headlines for adopting this controversial model of compensation.

Two-tiered systems draw a line in the sand. Established workers are treated exactly as they were, and new workers are treated worse.

It seems like the goal is to mitigate the chance of opposition by keeping long-time workers happy while changing the rules for new employees.

At Kellogg’s, that didn’t work.

“If not us, who? If not now, when?” — Climate Strike with a pertinent message for Labor Unions — Photo by Ronan Furuta on Unsplash

Quick Backstory

Kellogg’s two tiered system, implemented in 2015, divides workers into two separate groups: “Legacy” and “Transitional” workers. Legacy Workers were hired before 2015 and Transitional Workers were hired…