Why Ingredion Workers Are Still On Strike In Iowa

IngredionINGR
workers with BCTGM Local 100G in Cedar Rapids, Iowa have been on strike for over a month. We spoke with Jason Davis, International Representative for the Midwest Region of BCTGM (Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco, Grain Millers Union) to understand the motivations and goals of the workers who have walked off the job.

ES: Tell us a little bit about the work that you do.

Jason Davis: I’m an international representative in the Midwest region here. A lot of my job duties entail negotiating contracts, organizing new shops, grievance meetings, arbitrations, kind of a jack of all trades.

ES: What is the direction of the union?

Jason Davis: We’re a members’ focused international union where we’re out to support the members and work for the members. Our members came to work every day. They had to come to a physical address, a physical location to work. They worked this pandemic. They did it admirably. They put themselves in danger. They put their families in danger with COVID-19. It’s not a time to take from your workers. It’s a time to reward your workers for the work that they put in. Our members came to the factories every single day, worked to put out the product to keep this country going. Our members are our bosses.

ES: So tell us a little bit about what Ingredion is.

Jason Davis: Ingredion is significantly different than the strikes that we had last year. You know, you think of Frito-Lay, Nabisco, Kellogg, John Deere. Here it’s a corn starch manufacturer in Cedar Rapids. So they bring in corn, steep it and they produce the corn starch. The majority of their corn starch goes to corrugated cardboard boxes. It goes towards the production of paper. So it’s not really a product that everyday Americans are used to, but it’s something that’s in the hands of everyday Americans every day. They have a few large customers with International PaperIP
, Georgia-Pacific, AmazonAMZN
. Chances are your Amazon cardboard boxes that come to your house have some cornstarch in them. So this production facility here focuses on those types of corn starches. They also have some byproducts they put out for animal feed and things of that nature.

ES: What do folks do in a facility that makes corn starch for industrial uses?

Jason Davis: We have everyone from lab technicians to a quality control lab in this unit. We have operators that will operate the pumps, the machinery, the mills that mill corn. We have product handlers, chemical handlers, packaging folks. It goes all the way from the from the process of receiving corn to steeping it, grinding it. And then it goes to packaging where we have package handlers. Ingredion Worldwide employs about 12,000 employees. So it’s not a huge company, but not a terribly small company either. They’ve made enough money to have $86 million worth of stock buybacks so far this year.

ES: What is the strike about?

Jason Davis: Ingredion purchased this plant in 2015. The local had a long battle with Ingredion coming in trying to rewrite the contract. The lab employees in this local organized so many decades ago and Quality Control Associates were part of the recognition clause. The company has proposed and insisted all the way into the last and final offer to remove the lab department from our employees. Another piece that’s a huge point for our members is health and welfare language. We have a health and welfare package with the company here that’s different than their corporate package. We’re on a cost share basis when it comes to premiums that we pay every week. What I mean by that is we pay a percentage of the actual cost of what the health care is. So the company is attempting to move us to a larger plan that some of the other facilities are on, one that we consider to be an inferior plan to what we have. Our co-pays would go up, our out-of-pocket limits would go up. Our going to the doctors prices would change. Typically, when we negotiate a contract, we negotiate the health, the welfare package until the end of the contract. That plan design won’t change. It’s one of the beauties of having a union contract is, you know what your benefits are going to be for the next 3 years, 4 years, 5 years, whatever the term may be. But they’re insisting upon having the ability to change that plan from year to year during the contract. And the uncertainty to the members as to what their plans are going to look like over the term of this contract is a big concern to us.

What really got me going with unions is seniority. There’s a number of proposals the company has that would diminish seniority. And their overtime scheduling system, what they’re looking at doing would force an equalization type of method for overtime schedules as opposed to a straight seniority system.

They’re looking to put these jobs into classifications. We currently have a 2 tier wage system here. So everybody in the plan is either a Tier 1 operator or Tier 2 operator with the company. What the company’s trying to do is break the classifications and provide what they call lock in times. If the company doesn’t like you, you may have the most seniority, apply for it, to be completely capable and qualified to do the job, but you’re not going to get it. The company’s vacation proposal would actually take days away from employees, especially the more senior employees when it comes to how much vacation time they get. We’re currently on an 8 hour workday and we’re pretty much guaranteed our days off when we’re off. Should the members choose to move to a 12 hour schedule, those days off are no longer guaranteed.

ES: What’s motivating the union members to be on the picket line for this many days now?

Jason Davis: The union members are fighting to maintain their contract. They’re trying to maintain what they have in a contract. They don’t want their contract rewritten. We have a lot of senior folks on the staff here. And what they’re trying to do is rewrite this contract into their terms as opposed to trying to work with the members to understand it better. So what they’re fighting for is to maintain their lab job, to maintain their seniority, to maintain a good health and welfare plan that they can count on for the term of the contract. A plan that won’t charge them for being married and won’t charge them for being a smoker. They’re fighting to keep their days off guaranteed. They’re fighting to keep their vacation. We’re not asking for improvements. What we’re doing is trying to just maintain what we have today. The company has proposed bonuses in lieu of raises in a lot of cases, and for our members that doesn’t cut it. So the members here, they’ve been very clear they don’t want bonuses. They want to see a wage increase. When we voted in a total democratic system, private and a secret ballot election, there was zero vote for the last, best and final offer. Not a soul in the bargaining unit wanted the last, best or final offer. And on that morning, they turned right back around and voted overwhelmingly, 96%, to go ahead and initiate the strike with Ingredion. And they walked out that morning. So, you know, the solidarity and the resolve of our Local 100 members here amazes me.

Ingredion, which is headquartered in Westchester, Illinois, put out a statement when the contract expired on August 1, 2022:

“The contract with the union in our Cedar Rapids facility expired on August 1, 2022. To date, we have not reached an agreement and the union placed us on notice of their intention to engage in a work stoppage effective August 1, 2022. Over the last two months we’ve bargained with the union in good faith on a frequent basis and provided them numerous proposals. The week of July 25, we presented the union with our “last, best and final” offer, which included their feedback and numerous adjustments to our previous proposals. Our intention is to meet with the union this week and we look forward to continuing our discussions.

Our goal has always been to provide our team members with very competitive wages and a comprehensive benefits package. While our team assumes operations of the Cedar Rapids facility, there may be temporary facility stoppages. We have enacted our business continuity plan and we are continuing to operate the facility to fulfill our customers’ orders and mitigate any impact on our operations.”

And the company released an additional statement on September 1, a month into the strike:

“From the very start of these negotiations, Ingredion has been committed to reaching an agreement that provides very competitive wages, comprehensive benefits and enhanced conditions for our people to ensure the successful operation of the Cedar Rapids facility, its continued vital role in the community, and its ongoing support of Iowa farmers… Our top priority is the safety and security of our employees operating the facility, the community members of Cedar Rapids, and our suppliers making deliveries to our facility. As we have formally communicated to the union, Ingredion stands ready to further our discussions with the objective of reaching an agreement that is fair and allows for the opportunity to sustainably build on the facility’s proud 128-year history.”