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About 1,400 workers at a Kellogg’s plant in Kansas City, Kan., are now in line for a 15 percent pay increase over the next three years after taking part in a three-month strike for improved wages and working conditions.
“This contract is further evidence of the power of a union voice and collective bargaining,” Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, said, according to The New York Times.
The Trends Journal has been reporting on the lack of participation in the labor market since the start of the outbreak and the new push by workers to be paid fairly. Companies in the U.S. are trying to fill about 11 million job openings. The paper said that amounts to about two jobs for every unemployed individual. (See “SPOTLIGHT: WORKERS ON DEMAND,” and “INFLATION ADDS AVERAGE $276 TO PLANTATION WORKERS OF SLAVELANDIA.”)
The salary increase will benefit 570 workers at the plant. Their salaries will increase by six percent in the first year, another five percent in year two, and 4.5 percent during the third year.
Chris Rhomberg, a sociologist from Fordham University, told the Associated Press that unions across the U.S. have seen a jump in support due to the labor shortage.
“The recent upsurge in strike activity has reminded employers that the threat of a strike is a realistic possibility, and workers, in general, can gain leverage from that,” he said.
Besides the lack of workers, the number of Americans who quit their jobs in February reached 4.4 million, which CNN reported was slightly below the peak of 4.5 million in November. The report said the sectors most impacted were retail, education, and manufacturing.
The Labor Department said Friday that payrolls in March rose by 431,000 which was just off the 480,000 jobs forecast by Refinitiv economists. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, the lowest level since February 2020.
Roger Grobstich, the RWDSU vice president, called the pay increase at the Kellogg’s plant that makes Cheez-Its a “historic contract for Local 184-L members at Kellogg’s, with the highest wage increases ever in Local 184-L history.”
TREND FORECAST: Among the reasons there is a shortage of workers is that they no longer want to work for poverty level wages.
As Gerald Celente has long said, “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.” Therefore, as socioeconomic conditions continue to deteriorate, “NEW WORLD DISORDER,” one of our 2020 Top Trends, will escalate as billions take to the streets, demonstrating against the lack of basic living standards, crime, violence, and government corruption.
The AP reported that there have been strikes at Kellogg’s plants in Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. The report said workers also walked out of a Frito-Lay plant in Topeka.
“With many would-be workers refusing to accept low-wage jobs and existing employees prepared to take collective action to increase wages, the decision-making metric is much different for employers than it was just a couple of years ago,” Todd Vachon, who teaches classes about labor relations at Rutgers University, told the AP. “Add to that the generally high level of public support for unions and strikes in recent months, and employers are really feeling the pressure to do right by their employees, especially if they are taking in high and even record levels of profit.”