Union organizers from Chicago descended on the Illinois State University campus Friday, seeking help from students in spreading the word about what it considers global exploitation of workers in Mexico and the moving of union jobs from a Nabisco plant in Chicago.
Nate Zeff, an organizer with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers International (BCTGM) union, helped about a dozen others hand out flyers on the quad, seeking help in an effort to get Nabisco and its parent company Mondelez to undo moving 600 jobs to Mexico.
"They're abandoning workers in the United States and they're exploiting workers in Mexico. By boycotting the 'Made in Mexico' Nabisco products, we can push back against that greedy business model," Zeff said.
He and the other union organizers are asking college students to spread the word. Specifically, they want consumers to call Nabisco and complain about the outsourcing, and to check food labels for nation of origin and to demand store managers purchase only made in America products.
Anthony Jackson was laid off from the Chicago Nabisco plant in March. He said he doesn't think much about President-elect Donald Trump's promise to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
"I don't want to depend on that," Jackson said. "I don't believe in just hoping for things. In order for us to make sure that it happens, we must do it as the individuals, as a unit as the group that we are. We must come together as Americans to bring the jobs back."
Included in the effort Friday was the president of the BCTGM Local 342 with workers at Bloomington's Nestle plant. Mike Johnson said there is a local impact.
"It's affecting our union pension. For every one of those jobs they sent to Mexico, they're not paying into our union pension, so we may not have a pension some day as a result of this, and a few years ago, the Hostess bankruptcy also hurt our pensions," Johnson said.
Learn more about the effort at fightforamericanjobs.org
