Nabisco workers vote to end strike that began in Portland, spread nationwide

A strike that spread from Portland across the country ended Saturday, and Nabisco employees could be back at the bakery as soon as Thursday.

About 200 workers walked off the job on Aug. 10 at a Northeast Portland bakery after Mondelez International, the parent company of Nabisco, proposed scheduling changes that could limit overtime and a plan that would mean new hires would be stuck with a more expensive healthcare plan.

Workers from other Nabisco bakeries and distribution centers soon joined the strike, including those in Chicago; Aurora, Colorado; Richmond, Virginia; and Norcross, Georgia. It attracted national attention.

Cameron Taylor, a business agent at Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers Local 364 in Portland, said Saturday that about 75% of members approved of the agreement, which got rid of the new healthcare proposal and maintained the regular overtime schedule for most employees.

“What my members wanted was to hold on to their benefits,” Taylor said, noting they mostly got what they wanted.

“What the company did get was a weekend crew,” he said, which he called “a sticking point” with his members.

Still, Taylor said, he was already in communication with the company’s human resources department and expected workers would be in meetings on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week and then “potentially starting production back up on Thursday.”

Jamie Goldberg contributed to this report.

— Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker