Lessons from the Kellogg Battle Creek Picket Line
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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29 Oct Lessons from the Kellogg Battle Creek Picket Line

Posted at 18:09h in Kellogg Strike by

by Corrina Christensen, BCTGM International Director of Communications

The time between two hours and two days on a strike line is immeasurable. And after 25 days holding the line, Kellogg workers know their moment will eventually come to an end and if I were to predict, it will be a limitless victory. They have fought hard and united together, defining what it means to be a union family. Dedicated to a purpose. Driven by principle. Motivated by their own courage and conviction.

This week, I spent three days visiting Local 3G members on strike outside the Kellogg cereal plant in Battle Creek, Michigan. โ€œCereal City,โ€ as it was once known, is a shell of its former self, when thousands of union workers occupied the Kelloggโ€™s plant on Porter Street. It has employed generations of Local 3G members and talk to anyone on the five picket lines surrounding the mammoth factory, and you will hear many proud, angry, sad stories of what led these proud folks to strike.

The picket lines surrounding the plant resemble what the workers tell me the company used to be: a family. Spirits are strong and the lines are held 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But this is nothing new for these hardworking men and women. Sharing shifts is what they do. Hard work is what defines them and they tell me the hours on the line arenโ€™t much different than the shifts they held inside the plant when making cereal, except now they have time to spend together. To support each other in this united fight for fairness.

Their strength and resolve remain steadfast and strong nearly a month into the strike โ€“ so much that it permeates the icy air of late October in Michigan. I met mothers, daughters, sons and fathers. Generations of union workers have made Kellogg what it is today. From the picket lines and the union hall, union members volunteer to help with one anotherโ€™s kids, share updates on youth sports and report cards, ask for help with ailing grandparents and spend time remembering friends who passed away before they were able join to the fight against Kellogg.

The Kellogg workers in Battle Creek, and in the other striking cities, will tell you it was just time to stand up and fight to silent the corporate Kellogg bullies. A company so out-of-touch with who is making their products, making decisions on behalf of people they donโ€™t know, havenโ€™t seen and have no desire to understand. On the picket lines, I was told story after story that demonstrates how this company relates to workers in only corporate, dehumanized terms.

In the end, this is mostly a story about solidarity. The older workers fighting for the younger workers and a workforce that still believes in equality. There is an unyielding support and love for one another that is something special to witness.

With story after story memorized in my heart, I drove away from the Battle Creek plant with tears of pride in my eyes and a better understanding of the working people I fight for in words and photographs. This fight will conclude eventually, but really, these workers have already won.

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