Grain mill workers in North Portland won raises totaling at least 17% through May 2027 under their new contract with Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) Local 114. The union represents around 20 workers in mill, warehouse, and maintenance work at Grain Craft’s mill at Terminal 4 on the Willamette River.
The new contract gave initial raises of 90 cents to $1, depending on the position, plus 5%. That amounts to a $2.15 per hour raise for the lowest paid workers, bringing them up to $26.26. For the highest paid workers, wages rose $2.47 to $30.77.
Those raises are retroactive to May 26, 2025, the day after the last contract expired, meaning workers will get more than $1,700 in back pay.
They’ll then get a 4.5% raise in May 2026 and 4% in May 2027.
Bakers Local 114 secretary-treasurer Taylor Almond said the contract also improves night shift differentials and gives an annual bonus.
“We were entertaining a strike vote. Management was well aware of that, and it did help bring us to finalizing this contract,” Almond said.
Though the contract expired in May, the two sides didn’t meet for negotiations until September. They reached tentative agreement on the new contract on Oct. 14. Members approved the agreement later that week in a 16-0 vote.
Almond said the bargaining unit has had a tight-knit group of long-time mill workers, and they were recently joined by a wave of younger employees who want to stick with this career — and know they need strong contracts and raises to make that feasible.
Grain Craft is a Tennessee-based wheat flour miller — the third largest in the country — producing flour for restaurants and commercial bakeries like Franz. The company purchased a corn milling operation earlier this year. The mill at the Port of Portland’s Terminal 4 has been operated by Grain Craft since 2014, when the company purchased the previous mill operator.
