Kellogg is officially replacing striking workers with permanent scabs, which means that union workers will remain on strike after two months while Kellogg goes about its business. It also means that its job application portal is wide open for thousands upon thousands of resumes from Lorem Ipsum. Reddit and TikTok have obliged.
Two days ago, Redditors on r/antiwork headed a campaign to bomb the portal with sample resumes, directing readers to the four plants that are hiring (Omaha, NE, Battle Creek, MI, Lancaster, PA, and Memphis, TN). The job descriptions state upfront that the applicant will be crossing the picket line: “the Unions representing Kellogg employees in these plants are on strike, and we are looking for employees to permanently replace them.”
The Reddit post concludes that “[i]t’s time to clog their toilet of an application pipeline.”
It points to a selection of sample resumes from Google images and supplies local zip codes and area codes so that strike supporters can tailor their fake addresses and phone numbers to make it harder for Kellogg to filter the spoofs.
TikToker Sean Black, or @black_madness21, decided to make that process even smoother, demonstrating a script that creates an account and fills out the fields, including relevant zip codes and a pre-written resume. Wazzaa:
Shortucut soon perhaps #antiwork #workersrights #kelloggs #strike #unions #leftist
Black was behind another script to help the masses spam a Texas abortion “whistleblower” site which solicited snitches to round up people who’ve needed abortions. (The site received tips about Texas governor Greg Abbot and Avengers characters, to name a few, before it was subsequently booted offline by its web hosts.) The campaign builds on the work of Kpop fans who allegedly reserved enough tickets to a Trump rally to produce a humiliatingly small crowd.
Kellogg products include Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes, Mini-Wheats, Pop-Tarts, Pringles, and numerous other brands on this list.
After striking workers rejected Kellogg’s last proposed agreement, Kellogg’s president of North America Chris Hood said in a statement that the “prolonged work stoppage has left us no choice” but to fill their jobs with “replacement employees.” (The job application states three times that the position is “permanent.”)
Around 1,400 unionized plant workers argue that they have no choice but to strike. Kellogg employees have said that they work 72-84 hours per week with forced overtime—a brain-breaking workload that is up to 45 hours beyond what some researchers estimate is the threshold for mental stability. (Contrary to what workers have reported consistently, Kellogg maintains and told Gizmodo that workers average 52 to 56 hours per week and that 90 percent of overtime is voluntary.) One worker told Rolling Stone that they might work up to 30 days in a row and be called back to work at 3 a.m. after a 12-hour workday.
Workers are demanding better benefits and a better share of the rising profits which hit $380 million in just Q2 of this year. Kellogg’s latest proposal (a bare-bones overview can be found here) does offer immediate wage increases based on years worked. But according to the union, it would bar new employees from eventually making as much as “legacy” employees. Kellogg told Gizmodo that the latest proposal “contained no concessions or takeaways – only increases in wages and benefits.”
The union has said it plans to continue the strike while Kellogg does not plan to negotiate further.
A Kellogg representative told Gizmodo that “interest in the roles has been strong at all four plants, as expected.” For sure. Nearly 63,000 people upvoted the Reddit post with application instructions. The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), which represents the workers, could not be immediately reached for comment.