Waging War for Better Wages

Striketober is over, but Strikesgiving is just beginning

During the month of October 2021, we saw over a dozen union strikes throughout the United States — many of which are still in progress today. Virtually all of these protests focus on better wages, benefits, and working conditions for employees.

Large corporations have recently started implementing “Two-Tiered Systems” to further exploit new hires. Both Kellogg’s and Kaiser Permanente have made headlines for adopting this controversial model of compensation.

Two-tiered systems draw a line in the sand. Established workers are treated exactly as they were, and new workers are treated worse.

It seems like the goal is to mitigate the chance of opposition by keeping long-time workers happy while changing the rules for new employees.

At Kellogg’s, that didn’t work.

Kellogg’s two tiered system, implemented in 2015, divides workers into two separate groups: “Legacy” and “Transitional” workers. Legacy Workers were hired before 2015 and Transitional Workers were hired after.

Legacy Workers make $34/hr and their health insurance is fully covered by Kellogg’s.

Transitional Workers make $19/hr and are forced to contribute a piece of that paycheck to their own health-insurance plan. They can earn raises over time, but they’ll never get better benefits.

Kellogg’s claimed that Transitional Workers could “catch up” to Legacy Workers after just six years of employment, despite the fact this new benefits package was immutable.

Since this strike began exactly 6 years after the implementation of the new two-tier structure, it seems like Kellogg’s might have massaged the truth.

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