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Kellogg's Union Workers enter 3rd week of strike

Workers from a Kellogg cereal plant picket along the main rail lines leading into the facility on Oct. 6 in Omaha, Neb. Workers have gone on strike after a breakdown in contract talks with company management.
Grant Schulte
/
AP
Workers from a Kellogg cereal plant picket along the main rail lines leading into the facility on Oct. 6 in Omaha, Neb. Workers have gone on strike after a breakdown in contract talks with company management.

About 14-hundred union workers at the Michigan-based Kellogg company enter their third week of a strike against the breakfast cereal giant, but contract talks are at a standstill.

Workers walked off the job at four Kellogg factories after a year of negotiating over benefits, a two-tiered wage system, and workdays the union claims can stretch to 16-hours.

Kellogg counters that it’s offered to increase wages and that meeting the union’s demands could cost it tens of millions of dollars.

But the president of the union local in Battle Creek where the company’s headquartered, Trevor Bidelman, says Kellogg is risking not being able to keep stores stocked with Frosted Flakes and Raisin Bran.

“Their contingency plans and the fees that they’re gonna incur by not being able to meet the deadlines for their cereal is gonna cost far more than what we’re asking for.”

Kellogg vows to maintain production using replacement workers.

Quinn Klinefelter