You probably haven’t heard of the battle pitting BCTGM Union Local 390G against International Flavors (IFF) in Memphis, TN, USA. But with workers who are mega-exploited and a company that refuses to stand down, it has become one of the most relevant for the working class.
What is IFF and what do these workers do?
You probably haven’t even heard of the company, IFF. But IFF is a key company that has a yearly revenue of multiple billions of dollars and is ranked as one of the biggest in America. In this case, the involved workers produce a type of soy protein that’s an essential component of many food products.
And it’s dangerous work. “Because the stuff in there, it only takes a split second for something to go wrong and you’ll be missing a foot, a toe, a head”, a worker stated in a report by More Perfect Union. “And if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll get hurt […] or lose your life”.
What conditions do the involved workers face? To briefly name a few of the issues:
- Often required to work 12 hours in a day
- No overtime pay for 12 hour days
- Decrease in (or company attempt to decrease) real wages, healthcare benefits, paid breaks, retirement
“They don’t want us to get the crumbs that fall on the ground”, said the same IFF worker, among this heavily black workforce. “We’re going back to slavery times.”
What has been the response of the company so far?
The workers have hit a brick wall when it comes to expecting anything from this company. That’s why the strike has lasted so long – it refuses to give in to their demands. The company hopes to exhaust the workers, who aren’t being paid any wages. It’s banking on poverty and a bad quality of life forcing them to return to work and accept horrible conditions.
Why is this strike so important?
The IFF strike has barely got any press coverage, and it may not involve a very large worker count like some more well-known strikes. But many of these strikes involve workers who already have some extremely basic guarantees – like a maximum 8 hours of work in a day.
In the case of the IFF workers, they lack even that. They’re facing extreme exploitation of the kind that has grown increasingly common in the USA, a country where the 8 hour day keeps getting more historically distant – which has been met with little resistance so far. This strike represents the beginning to that resistance.
And so this strike is a key front in the battle of whether companies will succeed imposing these extreme conditions. If the workers win, it will represent a blow to their ability to do so and set back their plans. But if this battle fails, things may end up much worse for everyone.
How can people help the workers win this strike?
- Donate to the strike fund so that the workers can keep the strike up for longer and force this company to stand down.
- Publicize this strike as much as possible.
I work with IFF all the time and know many of their corporate employees and still had no idea this was happening. Good that the workers have been able to hold out this long, I worry the “ignore them until they are too poor to strike” tactic will get increasingly common
Do you have a union at your workplace? Please consider striking in solidarity with the striking IFF workers.
Is IFF employing union-busting tactics? If so, do unionized workers elsewhere have the legal right to refuse working with IFF, even without joining in a sympathy strike? (This is the case in Norway, but I’m no US expert)
I can’t answer most of your questions, but sympathy strikes are illegal in the US.
US: Nothing effective is legal. As soon as a means is demonstrated to be effective Congress passes a law preventing future occurrences. In our late stage capitalism, a specific means being illegal is an indicator that the means is effective.
An “illegal” solidarity strike means the solidarity workers will not be guaranteed job protections. They cannot be compelled to work or criminally indicted. But, they can be fired. Solidarity striking workers should immediately begin job hunting.
Don’t the teamsters do something like that with UPS and trucks? Stuff like refusing to deliver to companies that have a strike going?
