Elected leaders call for end of Kellogg lockout

Feb. 10--Two Memphis City Council members and a Shelby County commissioner called on Kellogg Co. on Monday to end a nearly four-month-old lockout of 220 workers at the company's cereal plant.

Council members Lee Harris and Janis Fullilove joined Commissioner Steve Mulroy in condemning the lockout as an assault on middle-class workers.

They said if Kellogg doesn't end the lockout by Feb. 19, they will join picketing workers in an all-night campout at the plant site at 2168 Frisco near Memphis Defense Logistics Park. They are sponsoring resolutions to pressure Kellogg to end the lockout, which has left workers and families without paychecks, health insurance and life insurance.

During a news conference in the city's Hall of Mayors, the officials were flanked by 10 workers represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers International Union. Fullilove and Mulroy have pulled petitions to run for higher offices, county clerk and county mayor, respectively, and Harris has said he's exploring a run against state Sen. Ophelia Ford.

The lockout began Oct. 22 after the union rebuffed company demands for contract changes, including the ability to hire new casual workers at $22 an hour, $6 less than current scale and without full benefits.

Kellogg faces consumer shifts away from cereal to yogurt and other breakfast foods. The Michigan company urged workers and the union to accept the use of casual workers, and called the current cost structure unsustainable.

"We too are concerned that the situation in Memphis is ongoing and would like to see our employees back to work," Kellogg spokeswoman Kris Charles said. "To this end, we urge our employees to ask their union leaders to allow them to vote to keep their strong pay and benefits or to resume participation in the negotiations."

Kellogg has used replacement workers and managers to operate the plant, which produces cereals including Froot Loops and Apple Jacks.

The elected officials blasted Kellogg for failing to abide by its social contract with the community.

While tax breaks for plant upgrades in 1994 and 2001 have expired, Mulroy said "in exchange I think it is reasonable to ask them to act as good corporate citizens."

Although the council and commission can't penalize the company, Mulroy added, "all we can do is use our bully pulpit."

Kellogg Memphis: Over the years

November 1957: Kellogg announces management team to head up its new facility being constructed on a 17-acre tract at Airways Boulevard and Frisco.

April 1959: Company's corporate leaders host grand opening of new plant in Memphis.

April 1966: Company completes 150,000-square-foot addition, expanding footprint of local plant to more than 500,000 square feet and making it the second-largest of the company's plants in the United States and its third-largest in the world.

October 1966: Memphis plant operates 24-hour shifts five days a week, manufacturing more than 5 million servings of cereal each day.

October 1972: Nearly 5,000 workers at all Kellogg plants go on strike, including 600 in Memphis, and shut down company's production facilities for almost a month over a breakdown in contract negotiations.

August 1988: Kellogg begins clearing and leveling 186-acre site in Hickory Hill area as part of a projected $1.2 billion cereal production plant.

September 1989: Kellogg president Horst Schroeder, a key figure in the company's $1.2 billion construction project in Shelby County, abruptly resigns his post. Company leaders say the move will not affect the Memphis project.

October 1989: Construction of Kellogg's $1.2 billion plant in southeast Shelby County put on hold due to slow sales, company executives say.

January 1991: Kellogg Co. cancels plans for its $ 1.2 billion cereal plant on 185 acres at Hickory Hill near Raines. Instead, Kellogg commits $12 million and $15 million to modernize existing Memphis facility.

December 1993: Company announces four-year plan to modernize and update its 33-year-old Memphis facility at 2168 Frisco Ave. with a $146 million, 90,000-square-foot expansion. The project is expected to displace 100 jobs out of the plant's 700 production, maintenance, and office workers.

During 1996: Company eliminates 220 of its 500 hourly Memphis workers.

2011: CEO David Mackay retires on Jan. 1 and is replaced by chief operating officer John A. Bryant.

Memphis workforce drops to 400.

June 2013: Company eliminates 33 workers as part of restructuring plan.

August 2013: Company eliminates 67 workers as it scales back production at Memphis facility.

October 2013: Company locks out 220 workers after labor talks break down.

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