Steven James has been working as a machine operator making Oreos, Chips Ahoy! and other Nabisco snacks at a plant in Richmond, Va. for 20 years.
On Aug. 16, James joined about 1,000 of his fellow union members in five states and walked off the job to protest what they say are “unfair” demands for concessions in contract negotiations with Nabisco’s parent company Mondelez International (MDLZ). James, who isn’t working another job, said he plans to stay out of the plant until a fair contract is signed.
“We’re not asking for a lot,” James told Yahoo Finance Live. “We just want a fair contract.”
As America’s appetite for snack foods has grown during the pandemic, James said he and his colleagues on the frontlines have been working 12-hour shifts, seven days a week.
“It was just constant. Never had time to spend with the kids. Never had time to spend with the family,” he said.
In support of the strikers, here’s a bag of cookies I didn’t buy when I was at King Soopers earlier today:
