Almost 150 workers at Mondelez-Nabisco’s Portland bakery received payments of roughly $400 each in December, resolving a five-year-old dispute.
“It’s good to put that chapter to a close,” said Cameron Taylor, business agent for Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) Local 364.
The settlement resolved a dispute over the company’s use of temporary workers to sanitize equipment in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2020, the union agreed to let Mondelez hire temporary workers through July 2020.
But when August rolled around, Mondelez continued hiring temporary workers. Local 364 filed grievances and unfair labor practice charges. Mondelez was still using temporary workers when BCTGM workers went on strike in August 2021.
“At that point in time, we were at war. The strike was the culmination of everything that had gone on from 2016 to 2021, including this temp worker situation,” Taylor said.
The contract that ended the strike didn’t address the grievance over temporary workers. (BCTGM members ratified their newest contract in February 2025.)
In November 2025, Mondelez agreed to pay $60,000 to settle the grievance. The money compensates workers for some of the wages they could have made if the work was not assigned to temps and was split between BCTGM-represented workers who had been with Mondelez since 2021 or earlier. Local 364 represents about 215 workers at the plant.
“This settlement is part of the process of getting back to normal relations,” Taylor said.
