ADVERTISEMENT

Kellogg Cereal Workers Approve Agreement, Ending Standoff

Kellogg Cereal Workers Approve Labor Agreement, Ending Standoff

The union representing about 1,400 of Kellogg Co.’s cereal-plant workers voted to ratify the agreement reached with the company last week, ending a strike that began Oct. 5. 

The vote was confirmed by Dan Osborn, president of the union’s Omaha branch.

The agreement includes cost-of-living raises. It also adjusts a contentious two-tier system that gives longer-tenured employees better pay and benefits, by creating a clear path to those advantages, and graduating some employees immediately.

Kellogg shares fell 2.6% at 1:47 p.m. in New York. The stock rose 3.4% this year through Monday’s close, well behind the 22% increase in the S&P 500.

“We are pleased that we have reached an agreement that brings our cereal employees back to work,” Kellogg spokesperson Kris Bahner said in a statement.

The agreement also adds access to some insurance, as well as provides retroactive health insurance to October 5.

“This is a big win for us and a big win for the American labor movement,” Osborn said. “I’d like to say thank you for all those who stood up for what they believed in and stood the line and made the sacrifices needed to fight a corporate giant.”

The union members will return to work on Dec. 27 and won’t get paid for their days striking. The deal also includes a moratorium on U.S. cereal plant closures through October 2026.

“This agreement makes gains and does not include any concessions,” Anthony Shelton, international president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, said in a statement.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.