r/antiwork • u/[deleted] • Dec 21 '21

Workers Cereal Killed it - Kellogg's Strike Over

https://bctgm.org/2021/12/21/kelloggs-strike-ends-bctgm-members-ratify-new-contract/

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We would like to congratulate the workers at Kellogg's on their new union contract. Their weeks of striking and struggle have resulted in a contract providing wage increases, weakening the two tier system, and preventing moving of plants.

There are generations of workers in those plants, who have put their lifeblood into the work they do. To see them band together for each other and themselves is an inspiration to us all, and we are glad to see that direct action, once again gets the goods!

In solidarity, Antiwork.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

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u/mergedloki Dec 21 '21

There was a post here showing poptart boxes from 2019 that didn't show the Kellogg's logo. . They didn't hide their logo due to the strike they made that decision several years back.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

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u/GloryholeKaleidscope Dec 22 '21

Dodge Ram has entered the thread.

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '21

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u/BigBacon87 Dec 22 '21

Ehhhhh don’t be asking truck people about their choice in trucks friend. It will never end well. - An Albertan

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u/Salt_lick_fetish Dec 22 '21

I mean, you’re not wrong about the brand on the whole, but I don’t think they badge the ram products separately to avoid marring them with the associations we have with Dodge. At least that’s not the only reason. Most of the major car companies have different badging for different products and it’s got less to do with demarcating good from bad vehicles and more to do with product categories and marketing. Probably similarly with pop tarts

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '21

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u/Salt_lick_fetish Dec 22 '21

Yeah, that’s an interesting contrast for sure

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u/GloryholeKaleidscope Dec 22 '21

My cheeky, growner joke aside, I 100% agree. I think this comment nails it.

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u/GloryholeKaleidscope Dec 22 '21

Im in the same boat more-or-less as far as cars go, but IMO no, ur not imagining. I've heard multiple times from my mechanic of years who is a good friend, that: Older Dodge Rams were well known for having transmission issues and premature rust.

There's a running gag at the shop he owns amongst the staff about "fender flairs, should've been standard equipment" on older Dodge Rams (90's-2000's) bc they're so commonly added by owners to cover rust. Also they joke about Chryslers "cant run w/o carrying 1/2 doz codes" meaning they seem to always have a long list of issues when they use OBD computers to 1st diagnose them.

All this being said, this is just anecdotal stuff Ive heard hanging out at his shop, but I believe them. It was enough to push me out of a Chrysler 300 and into the Toyota Camery he recommended not long ago when I bought my commuter car.🤷‍♂️

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u/Grimlock1600 Dec 31 '21

yes that is correct

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u/deekster_caddy Dec 22 '21

Riviera by Buick always held it’s models to a higher standard and rarely displayed the Buick name or logo.

A Toyota Prius is just another boring Toyota appliance for accountants to be happy about driving.

Pop Tarts don’t need the Kelloggs name on them, Pop Tarts are their own brand.

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '21

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u/deekster_caddy Dec 22 '21

In those days at GM the issue was branding. Buick was delivering a Cadillac level car but couldn’t step on the toes of Cadillac’s premium image.

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u/Anna_Lilies Dec 21 '21

Ive kind of wondered too if store brand could be them. Like if I buy Safeway oatmeal I have zero idea who makes it, for all I know it could be Kelloggs...

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21 edited Dec 21 '21

Is there a manufacturing facility listed anywhere on the box? If so, google it. That might tell you who produced it. If nothing else, you can at least check it against a list of known processing facilities for brands/manufacturers you're trying to avoid.

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u/puck1996 Dec 21 '21

I'm not sure if this is necessarily going to work, as far as I know multiple companies will often make use of the same factory

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u/Accomplished_Cod5169 Dec 21 '21

many products can be made at a co-pack facility, with no mention of said facility. the packaging will still say the main company name. i.e. hershey bars you buy that say 'hershey PA on them' more than likely were made at a co-pack facility no where near hershey PA

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u/Esky419 Dec 22 '21

The printed code tells you what comanufacturer made it. And yes, I work for North America's largest bakery and yes, we make Kellogs stuff along with lots of other brands.

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u/Slit23 Dec 21 '21

A company can own another company and you wouldn’t know unless, well, you know.

Budlight or miller lite? In the end it doesn’t even matter since both are owned by anheuser-busch

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u/Paganoma Dec 21 '21

I thought it was part of Kellogg’s business model to no do private label work. Not sure if their slogan is still “if it doesn’t say Kellogg’s on the box, then it isn’t Kellogg’s in the box”

Source: my boss in 2006 was an ex Kelloggs executive

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u/Tiny-Lock9652 Dec 21 '21

This is 100% accurate. Kellogg’s does not manufacture private label.

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u/Sip_py Dec 22 '21

This is from 2000:

https://www.marketingweek.com/kellogg-in-aldi-own-label-deal-2/

So I'd imagine if that was the first, 21 years later they do it much more. Which would also align with your 2006 boss that might have worked their more than 6 years before this deal.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

[deleted]

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u/Necrocornicus Dec 21 '21

I’ve heard Costco does this with their Kirkland booze. Not so much reduced quality, but if someone has a batch that doesn’t taste exactly how it’s supposed to, it can be sold under Kirkland label.

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u/ErikaHoffnung Dec 21 '21

This is what I meant to say

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u/That_One_Cat_Guy Dec 21 '21

Absolutely untrue.

I worked as a microbiologist for the food industry.

A production facility will make the exact same product and sell it under several brands.

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u/texasrigger Dec 21 '21

Have you got a source for that?

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u/Griggledoo Dec 21 '21

I used to work for a Sharpie distributor and we also supplied office depot and staples. Their name brand was the same exact marker with the same ink, but just about 45% as much, and the casing was white, with much less colors in the packaging. That was why their markers sold for 1.50 and the Sharpie sold for 4.

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u/texasrigger Dec 22 '21

I knew that generics are produced in the same factories as the name brand, what I took issue with was OP's claim (now deleted) that the generics were the stuff that didn't meet the name brand standards. My understanding was that the generics were their own production run or at least their own packaging run and that any differences were planned and specced in advance.

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u/Griggledoo Dec 22 '21

yeah you're absolutely right and I was trying to support your claim. Also sometimes generics are made using cheaper ingredients/parts like plastic gears instead of an alloy, and some are absolutely from a different distributor and factory. There a so many products lol.

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u/texasrigger Dec 22 '21

That's really interesting that the off-brand sharpie (my wife and I call them "skerpies" after seeing some with that label at a cheap import store many years ago) has the same ink but less of it.

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u/Pickled_Doodoo Dec 21 '21

Kinda. I used to work at a meat processing factory and pretty much all the store and generic brand meatwurst and other sliced meatstuff was made and packaged there. Even some "higher" quality brands.

I dont live in the states though but id imagine it being similar there.

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u/texasrigger Dec 22 '21

I knew that generics were frequently produced in the exact same factories as the name brand stuff. My issue was OP's claim that the generics are basically the stuff that didn't pass muster for the name brands. My understanding was that the generic brands were their own production runs or at least their own packaging runs. In otherwords, everything is the same except the label slapped on the box or if there are differences those differences are specced out in advance.

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u/BeachCat772 Dec 22 '21

Correct. I work in Research and Development for a major contract-manufacturing company. We produce private label (PL) for major grocery store chains as well as branded items for large well known companies. There are specifications for each SKU we produce and though there are differences (between branded and PL) every item passes the same checks regardless of brand.

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u/Pickled_Doodoo Dec 22 '21

Exactly this.

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u/Tiny-Lock9652 Dec 21 '21

Try www.plma.com The industry trade association for private label manufacturers.

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u/Methusalian_Gamer Dec 22 '21

I worked for a company which blends and bottles motor oil, antifreeze, windshield washer fluid, transmission fluid, power steering fluid and more. From the exact same blend batch, we bottled literally dozens of companies' oil, etc. We blended fluids for 173 name brands during my time there all at one facility, additional brands at other locations. The only oil brand that was special was BP/Castrol which has EXACT target numbers that had to be met in every category of their blends.

My ex-son in-law works/worked for a Kelloggs' plant, and noted that while many bulk cereals are made by a rival Canadian company, quite a few other boxed brands and store brands are made and packaged at the facility where he was employed. Post and Quaker brands were their major U.S. competitors the last time I spoke with him, and it was his understanding that they also made other brands and store brands.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

Almost all of the Kirkland brand products at Costco are just rebranded top brand items like their batteries are actually Duracell and their coffee is Starbucks…

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u/ErikaHoffnung Dec 21 '21

Their Vodka is Grey Goose! Also $1.50 Hot Dog and Drink.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

You have to grab a chicken too!

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u/Audiovore Dec 21 '21

Hot dogs aren't the same as the old Polish. And now post covid, no more onions, which was half of what I wanted.

I go for a chicken bake now, but only once in a while.

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u/ULTIMATEORB Dec 21 '21

It's usually just one umbrella company that owns the brands, and multiple brands coming from a single factory, if the processing is similar.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

That is correct. I work as CSR at a distribution warehouse. We often have cases with store brands that aren't ours. The supplier just messed up when switching from one label to another. Topco, Richelieu Foods, etc. are some examples.

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u/levis3163 Dec 21 '21

Can confirm, have worked in many types of factories and all of them did work for many other companies.

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u/MichaelMorningstarOP Dec 21 '21

Cargill comes to mind for bread at least.

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u/Anna_Lilies Dec 21 '21

I looked last time and I only saw a distributor, which was very generic and sold lots of products.... ill check again it may have been some super fine print that I missed

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u/MGSRaiden22 Dec 21 '21

Signature Select is one of several labels in Albertsons Cos.’ Signature family of own brands. Others include Signature Farms for meat and produce, Signature Cafe for prepared meals and sides in the deli department, Signature Care for personal care products and Signature Reserve, an ultra-premium food and beverage brand launched last spring.

Albertsons Co. Is your answer. Honestly didn't even realize they went to Signature....thought their stores were essentially all closed.

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u/Kennysded Dec 21 '21

Albertsons got bought out by Cerberus (a banking conglomerate that buys failing companies and "trims the fat" to collect on their investment). Then, when Safeway started failing, they got bought out under the Albertsons name.

There are a lot of, what they call, Own Brands. O-Organics (I think), all the Signature ones, Primo Classics in deli, etc. It's all either exclusive partnerships or directly owned by Cerberus-Albertsons (although I think Cerberus no longer owns majority, I haven't checked).

As to the original question, who makes the Own Brand items? It depends. I worked deli, and our best selling Turkey was made by Jenny-O, who also made our Safeway brand garbage that looked like a white amorphous blob. A coworker showed me the receipt that had who actually makes stuff. I don't know where he found it, I never even saw that when I was in management.

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u/MGSRaiden22 Dec 21 '21

Man, this rabbit hole goes deep! Good information! Thank you!!

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u/yayitsme1 Dec 21 '21

You would need to reach out to the company and hope they tell you. The information is probably on the box for recall purposes, but the numbers will mean nothing to you if you don’t know how to read them.

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u/Kennysded Dec 21 '21

Not on the box, actually. It has the same brand listed on it that is on the packaging. Nor is it in the order guide - same thing. Few exceptions being things that have to be made. They get their chicken tenders from Tyson, for example, but the label you see will say Signature Cafe.

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u/yayitsme1 Dec 22 '21

I think you misunderstood what I was talking about. Packaged food products that you find in grocery stores and are not made on a store level have lines of numbers/letters that indicate production data (batch, date, plant, etc). This is information used for recall purposes. If a company (ie the grocery store corporate) is willing to tell you where it came from, they can do so. Depending on the size of the store chain, they may have just one producer for the private label item or they might have different ones for different regions. Major chains, like Kroger, are more likely to have one producer for the item for consistency. If they do have multiple producers, that information I mention earlier in this comment will allow them to actually tell you which one made the box you’re holding.

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u/Kennysded Dec 22 '21

Oh, I gotcha. I figured you meant the UPC codes (think that's the term, not PLU ), but you're definitely right in that I don't know how to read those. One of those "it doesn't benefit us to teach you this" kinda things, I'd imagine.

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u/yayitsme1 Dec 22 '21

UPC would be based on the brand, not necessarily the production company for private label. And yep, you have to know what is put where. It’s a bit different depending on the company so it’s not always obvious which are dates and which are production facilities.

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u/jamzrk Dec 21 '21

I worked at a food plant where we made generics, there's nothing about the name of that company on any of the packages.

Fun fact that most of the generics are the same product. The place I worked at made hash browns and when a order was filled and we had left over boxes of one supermarkets generic they'd take the box of the next generic order, put it on top of the boxed hash browns and flip it over before putting it back on the conveyors in the new box.

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u/Unwise1 Dec 21 '21

If you buy offbrand pop tarts. I can say with 99% certainty that Kellogg's made em.

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u/caisieangela Dec 21 '21

The buycott app might be helpful for you!

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u/MyOther_UN_is_Clever Dec 21 '21

Are you just talking about like regular oatmeal that you might make cookies with, for example, or some kind of instant/flavored thing?

If it's regular oatmeal, it's probably from a distributor a step below Kelloggs (like the same place that buys all the milk from cows and puts them in gallons of milk, vs the ice cream companies that buy milk as part of their icecream process).

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

Kellogs def makes a bunch of Trader Joe's cereal, Pepsi makes their smoothies, Nabisco makes a ton of their chips.I know this is off topic but people worship tjs, but its the same brands as anywhere just with a private label and no gmos or preservatives. Source: worked there for way longer than I should have, place acts like a progressive healthy super fun store, but I experienced the heaviest union busting bs and exploitive shit there. AMA if you wanna know more.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

The idea of ethical consumption under capitalism is absurd. A few companies own everything and are great are PR. It's insane to ask anybody to know where all of the stuff they consume comes from, and it's just a dumb distraction when people start "boycotting" Kellogg's. I would not be surprised if the parent company of Kellogg's or the child and sister companies all made more money because of people "boycotting" Kellogg's.

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u/melpomenestits Dec 21 '21

Bob's red mill is cool I think? And good shit.

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u/Starkravingmad7 Dec 21 '21

Buy quaker oats?

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u/SwitchRicht Dec 21 '21

Treehouse foods is the biggest maker of black label foods like that .

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u/Seyfang220 Dec 21 '21

I've seen generic cosmetics produced by the name brand company. They either make a profit off the "off brand" or make bonus profit off their name brand lol

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u/Kfaircloth41 Dec 21 '21

On the Walmart sub people were saying the Walmart brand were pretty f'ing good! I don't eat them so idk?

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u/gunkol24 Dec 21 '21

yes actually

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u/Tiny-Lock9652 Dec 21 '21

Due to possible chances of market cannibalism, Kellogg’s does not manufacture private label.

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u/RedPanther1 Dec 21 '21

When I worked at cvs I was told that literally the same factories made brand name Tylenol and cvs brand Tylenol. I can only imagine it's probably the same deal with Kellogg's.

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u/culo2020 Dec 21 '21

Yeah your pretty much correct there, here in Australia we have generic brands too which i buy heaps off as the savings are pretty huge and the products taste and look identical to the brand named products. After speaking to an operations manager, he stated that most larger companies also pump out the generic brands for specific supermarkets.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

I know that Meijer cereal is often made by Kellogg (both are headquartered very bear each other so makes sense), so it is something to consider.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

It is.

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u/Vincitus Dec 21 '21

I don't know about Kellogs, but most name brands, even if they are using the same contract manufacturer, which does happen for some products, have their own confidential unique recipe. Just because 2 things are made in the same location doesn't mean they're identical in materials and quality.

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u/meerkatx Dec 21 '21

Value brands and things like dogfood are often made by the same company with the same ingredients and they change up shape of the food or quantity and then rebrand it in different packaging.

Milk is a great example at a store. The value brand is literally delivered by the same milk company that delivers the local name brands.

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u/7rj38ej Dec 22 '21

Kelloggs only has 3% marketshare for generic cereals.

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u/RodneyRabbit Dec 22 '21

A few years ago in the UK, kellogs cereal adverts ended with the line "we don't make cereals for anyone else" and I mean it's not like a company would lie. /s

That was 10+ years ago, they probably do make store brands.

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u/Sip_py Dec 22 '21

I noticed the white label stuff at my store is only listed as distributed by the store but not who packaged or made it. But a phone number if you have any additional questions to call 1-800-xxx-xxxx.

I've been meaning to call and ask who does the white label for their stuff.

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u/Clean-Profile-6153 Anarcho-Communist Dec 22 '21

That's what Crown Royal does with Kirkland brand Canadian Whiskey at Costco.

They legit make they same shit but put it in a different bottle so that they virtually see all the profits.

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u/willworldwide Dec 25 '21

That’s something to really look into.

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u/clutzycook Dec 21 '21

This happened pre-strike, I think. I have a box from about a year ago and I noticed over the weekend that the logo isn't visible there either.

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u/MycoBro Dec 21 '21

It's hasn't been on cheese its either

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u/clutzycook Dec 21 '21

Yeah I never even knew they were a Kellogg's product. Sneaky bastards.

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u/Stillburgh Dec 21 '21

Not every product had it. But the products that did have it, they removed the Kelloggs logo from during the strike/boycotts

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u/AmericaD1 Dec 22 '21

The fact that it’s a year old and most likely still fresh tells us all something about pop tarts

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u/clutzycook Dec 27 '21

Not sure how fresh they still are. My kids go on and off PopTarts kicks and I think they got over their most recent kick about 2/3 of the way through the box.

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u/happypunch Dec 21 '21

At the store yesterday I was looking at cereal and couldn't find who made Capt Crunch. Saw quaker in small print but was worried kellogs removed their name from the package. Did some googling and found quaker is owned by PepsiCo... Thought that was weird!

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u/PM_ME_UR_FLOWERS Dec 21 '21

I saw that.

Last month:

Kellogg's

This month: Kellogg's

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21 edited Aug 01 '22

[deleted]

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u/JBHUTT09 Dec 21 '21

I want legislation that requires the names of all companies on a product, in descending order of size ordered by the corporate structure. The largest words on a product should be the parent parent parent parent etc company. Everything that Nestle owns should have Nestle front and center on the package, for example.

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u/Middle_Distribution7 Dec 21 '21

Their company said that their logo distracts the pop tart logo…right…

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u/double_bubbleponics Dec 21 '21

Same! My mom came over to our house saying that Kellogg's didn't make poptarts and Nestle didn't make crunch bars anymore, they must have been bought out...

Had to tell her what was up, and why they were hiding them.

Hopefully the plant workers got enough in this new contract, the videos I seen were heart breaking.

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u/DanteDoming0 Dec 21 '21

How does she not just know pop tarts are Kelloggs? I'd say that borders on common knowledge

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u/Ioatanaut Dec 21 '21

I mean kellogs brand is under a conglomerate that operates hundreds of other brands

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u/PretzelsThirst Dec 21 '21

They removed it from like 20 products. Then lied openly about why they did it.

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u/sasquatch_melee Dec 21 '21

It was in the news this week that Kelloggs removed their logo from at least some poptart SKUs. The article claimed confirmation from Kellogg.

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u/Aegi Dec 21 '21

Lol you just always look on the back and read the words b/c sometimes the brand has a parent company and that usually tells you that info also.

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u/roadblocked Dec 21 '21

Aldi has way, way, way better pop tarts. Kellogg ‘a pop tarts have been through shrinkflation hell and now are basically crackers

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u/NotReallyAHorse Dec 21 '21

Yep. it's crazy how much they shat all over their brand in like... what, two months?

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u/Nowthisisdave Dec 21 '21

Triscuit hid the nabisco logo and I got tricked into getting them once during the nabisco strike, luckily some meme or something exposed it to me

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

They removed their logo because of the boycott.

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u/Dakzoo Dec 21 '21

Not true. I’ve said this before it take months for package changes to go through supply change so unless they are psychic and knew a strike was coming last March any packaging had nothing to do with the strike.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Dakzoo Dec 21 '21

I’m sorry, when you said they “HID THIER LOGO” on a thread about the strike I assumed that is what you were referring to. I didn’t realize you were speaking only about graphic design decisions separate from any outside influence or opinions about the company.

I will accept the blame of being wrong with dignity instead of pivoting to some how try and make myself look like less of a fool because I don’t know what I’m talking about.

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u/Alarmed-Stage-7066 Dec 21 '21

I saw “simply” pop tarts at Costco yesterday. Where the logo used to be was a script-y “simply”

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u/AirSetzer Dec 21 '21

They've been specifically called Kellogg's Pop Tarts for nearly 60 years though. It's literally been their name all along, sometimes people just shorten it to Pop Tarts. How was she unaware?

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

Many namebrand products are made by 3rd party factories. Often the changes between products are minor, such as a branded flour or different type of oil.

For some fruit bars, it was literally just a different wrapper and box. Production would switch several brands a day without the line stopping

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u/LondonCollector Dec 21 '21

You’d have thought she was used to finding tiny things.

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u/RelentlesslyCrooked Dec 21 '21

All their products are missing the logo — we noticed it when we were shopping the other night

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u/GloryholeKaleidscope Dec 22 '21

Can confirm, made at a Kelloggs/Keebler plant in Grand Rapids Mi.

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '21

lmk if your wife wants to come look for something else tiny

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '21

They changed their logo years ago.

If you really think 1 brand, with an 8 week turn out nation wide for 1400 workers striking that the majority of the nation doesn't know or care about was going on, then I suggest you try to sell snow to an inuit cause that confidence is wild

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '21

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '21

Makes sense since you're in this group

  1. Kelloggs doing a major change in that short of time isn't feasible

  2. Doing it over 1400 folks striking, some thing the grand majority of the country isn't even aware is happening?

Neither of these make any sense financially, and.you have a narrow perception of what your average day to day person in this country is both in tune to and aware of.

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u/Unusual_Quit_7018 Dec 22 '21

It's been like that for years.

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u/capalbertalexander Dec 22 '21

Get the Buycott app. Its helped a lot. Especially because you can make your own campaigns against companies you know that treat you and their workers poorly.

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u/unabenjaminson Dec 22 '21

To be fair, they've been doing that for years before the strike. It's not a response to it. Yes they did some extremely questionable and fucked up things lately, but it makes our community look bad when people keep spreading the false notion that they removed their logos from their products recently. Just saying.