‘Our raises have been pennies’: US cake-makers strike for fair deal as company makes billions
More than 150 workers at the Jon Donaire Desserts plant in Santa Fe Springs, California, have been on strike since early November over wages, healthcare coverage and working conditions.
The dispute centers on food workers, hailed as heroes early in the pandemic, who are struggling to cope with spiraling costs of living as the company that employs them posts billion-dollar revenues.
Workers at the plant, which makes ice-cream cakes for companies such as Baskin-Robbins, Walmart and Safeway, are asking for a $1 an hour raise every year for three years with no cuts to their healthcare costs.
Rich Products Corporation, the plant’s owner, has made two offers to the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union, which represents the workers. One proposed a 50¢ raise over one year and 55¢ raises for the following two years. The other offered an overall wage increase of $4.10 an hour, but included significant increases to the cost of workers’ healthcare.
“Right now, we’re paying around $130 a month for healthcare. They want to increase it to $480 for a single person and $780 for a family plan,” said Miguel Perez, who has worked at the Jon Donaire plant for 12 years.
“The Rich Corporation is not fulfilling its obligation to take care of its employees. They had us working through the whole pandemic. Everybody showed up to work. We all met our quotas as far as production [is concerned], and now that the contract is up they’re trying to nickel-and-dime us into an unacceptable raise.”
Workers have highlighted the company owners’ immense wealth and profits in their pressure to secure the raises they are on strike to receive. The chief executive and owner of Rich Products, Robert Rich Jr, has a net worth of
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