Outside a Portland Walmart: The Nabisco Boycott Day of Action

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PORTLAND, Oregon — Union members and supporters assembled outside a Walmart store at lunchtime Nov. 16 as part of a national day of action in support of a union boycott of Mexican-made Nabisco products.
Sharon London, right, is a longtime Fred Meyer employee and a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555. On Nov. 16 she joined several dozen other unionists outside Walmart to publicize a Bakers union boycott and urge passersby to buy USA-made Nabisco products. London says she was agitated to see managers serve Mexican-made Nabisco crackers at a recent employee meeting. So she decided to post information about the boycott on the union bulletin board and come out for the lunchtime boycott action.

The union boycott against Mexican-made Nabisco products doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon. Since March 2016, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers union has waged a boycott campaign against Mexican-made Oreos, Chips Ahoy and other Nabisco products — to protest the decision by parent company Mondelēz to lay off hundreds of Chicago union workers and shift production to a factory outside Monterrey, Mexico.

The campaign, which has the backing of the national AFL-CIO, asks consumers to check the label when they buy Nabisco products, and leave it on the shelf if it says “Made in Mexico.”

On Nov. 16, the campaign held a nationwide day of action. BCTGM strategic campaign coordinator Ron Baker says boycott visibility actions were held outside over 100 stores nationwide. In Portland, where BCGTM Local 364 represents Nabisco bakery employees, several dozen union members and staff gathered outside a Walmart store with signs, and handed out boycott cards to passersby.

The event came two days after a video about a laid-off Chicago Nabisco worker got more 2.7 million views on the web site NowThis Politics.

MORE: See more photos of the Portland action here.

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