The MTD-affiliated Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) released a short-form documentary entitled “Made in America” which shows the plight of union workers laid off from the Chicago Mondelez/Nabisco bakery when the parent company moved operations to Mexico more than a year ago.
The BCTGM is working with other unions, civic organizations, college student groups and many more to publicize the fact that cookies which had been made for generations by American workers now are produced at facilities where workers may be making as little as $1 an hour. The union is asking consumers to check Nabisco packages at stores and not buy products that are not made in the United States or Canada, where workers have union contracts with decent wages and benefits.
At its last two executive board meetings, the MTD has passed statements of solidarity with the Bakery Workers. The AFL-CIO Executive Board approved the BCTGM effort as a national campaign in March.
Mondelez, which owns Nabisco, notified workers in Chicago that the company would be investing in new equipment that would be located either in a new plant in Mexico or at the long-running Illinois facility. However, staying in Chicago came with a catch – a 60 percent reduction in wages and benefits – which the union members rejected.
In March 2016, the first of eventually 600 union members lost their jobs when Mondelez closed the Chicago bakery. The documentary, produced by public television’s “Front Page,” tells what has happened to some these laid-off workers.
The BCTGM estimates that approximately 50 million households across the country will have the opportunity to see the documentary when it airs on television during the next year. The MTD has downloaded the link here, introduced by actor James Earl Jones, for those wishing to view it.