MINNEAPOLIS — Members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 22 at Jerry’s Broadway Bakery here responded to the call for solidarity from strikers fighting a union-busting drive by International Flavors and Fragrances in Memphis, Tennessee. They organized the local to raise donations and support for a Christmas toy drive for the striking workers’ families.
BCTGM Local 390G striker Zandra Lee set up a GoFundMe site in Memphis so “all the families on strike can still place toys under the tree this holiday season.” IFF bosses, she noted, “don’t care if our families eat or starve and is not willing to negotiate with the Union.” The strikers have been on the picket line for six months, fighting to prevent the company from eliminating overtime pay after eight hours of work and other key issues.
“Thank you for standing up for workers everywhere” read the solidarity card signed by 25 union workers here, who kicked in $250.55 for the toy drive. “It’s good to show support so they feel that they’re not alone,” Monee Morriseau, one of the organizers of this act of solidarity, told the Militant.
The international union posted an article on BCTGM.org showing photos of Broadway Bakery workers, their card and the union bulletin board display where the toy drive was featured. “Our Local Unions exemplify the true meaning of solidarity through actions,” the article said. BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton also wrote a letter to workers here, thanking them for “the tremendous acts of solidarity you have shown.”
Based on a tally at the toy drive GoFundMe site, union members from Atlanta to Los Angeles, the Bay Area to the Midwest, along the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., as well as Montreal donated over $4,000 at last count. More donations were sent directly to BCTGM Local 390G.
Gabby Prosser, member of BCTGM Local 22