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The Kellogg Co. has filed a lawsuit against its local union in Omaha, claiming that the workers on strike are blocking entrances to its cereal plant and accuses them of intimidating replacement workers.
The company operates out of Battle Creek, Michigan, and has asked a judge to order the Omaha chapter of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union to stop interfering with its running business while workers join together outside the plant.
Workers in Omaha and workers at Kellogg’s three other cereal plants in the U.S. have been on strike since Oct. 5, the Associated Press reported.
“We respect the right of employees to lawfully communicate their position in this matter. We sought a temporary restraining order to help ensure the safety of all individuals in the vicinity of the plant, including the picketers themselves,” company spokeswoman Kris Bahner said Thursday.
Kellogg’s lawsuit was filed after a vehicle struck and killed a United Auto Workers member as he was walking to join striking workers outside a John Deere distribution plant located in northwest Illinois. An Iowa judge issued a temporary restraining order against workers in Davenport that limited their demonstrations down to four picketers at a time.
Kellogg claims union members have been physically blocking the entrance to the plant, which causes problems for semi-trucks and buses trying to enter and leave.
It also claims in its lawsuit that workers picketing outside the plant have also threatened the lives of employees working at the plant, including “threatening that an individual’s wife and young children will be assaulted (including sexually) while he is away from home working with Kellogg.”
There were contract talks earlier this month, but they failed to form an agreement. Earlier this week, the company started its PR campaign to try to get workers hooked on its latest offer because the union declined to put the deal up to a vote. However, on Thursday, Kellog said that its offer to the union had expired, with no additional talks on the schedule.
Ken Hurley, the head of labor relations at Kellogg’s, said in a video the company posted on its website that it has tried to discuss the union’s main concerns, which is about its two-tiered pay system, wages, and benefits in its offer.
“We have made every attempt to build a bridge toward a new agreement, but those efforts are met with rejections and more unrealistic demands,” Hurley said in the video. “We urge the union to reconsider its approach and agree to engage in real bargaining for a contract to get our employees back to work and back to their lives.”
Union officials told workers that it didn’t recommend the offer because it was full of concessions.
The Kellogg’s strike consists of about 1,400 workers across four plants: Battle Creek; Omaha; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee, that make all of Kellogg’s brands of cereal, including Frosted Flakes and Apple Jacks.
The company has said that it has restarted production at all of the plants with salaried employees and also outside workers. The company is also in the process of hiring new employees. CEO Steven Cahillane told investors earlier this month that after the company reported a $307 million quarterly profit that it stockpiled cereal beforehand to help get through the strike.
Workers hope the strike will help them obtain a better offer because of the ongoing worker shortages.
More than 10,000 Deere workers remained on strike after workers there rejected two different offers from the tractor maker.
Employees are also less willing to compromise since they worked long hours amid the coronavirus pandemic to meet the demand over the past 18 months.
