By Praveen Paramasivam
(Reuters) – A majority of workers at Kellogg Co’s breakfast cereal plants voted in favor of a new contract that offers better terms for transitional employees as well as wage increases, Daniel Osborn, president of the local union in Omaha, said on Tuesday.
The new five-year deal ends months-long stalemate between Kellogg and its factory workers in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Tennessee that had prompted the company to warn of permanently replacing striking workers, drawing criticism from President Joe Biden.
The union representing around 1,400 workers said last week the latest tentative deal had showed some progress on a few key issues from the previous proposal, including increases in the cost of living wages and removal of the term “legacy employee.”
A union leader had said they could return to work two days after Christmas, nearly three months from when they went on a strike.
Kellogg had said the latest deal offered its lower-tier workers, known as transitional employees, “an accelerated, defined path to legacy wages and benefits as compared to the current contract”.
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
