As workers return to Ingredion, union leader reflects on ‘thick skin’ needed to negotiate contract

CEDAR RAPIDS — As union workers went on strike for nearly six months against multinational ingredients maker Ingredion’s Cedar Rapids plant, Mike Moore’s phone rang almost constantly, and he hardly ever slept through the night.

Moore, the president and principal of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 100G, along with his executive committee were at the center of the protracted effort reach a deal to get the Ingredion workers better wages and working conditions.

Their efforts paid off Jan. 22 when a majority of about 88 union employees voted to ratify a contract that Moore has said includes increased pay rates, retains seniority with overtime where longer-tenured workers get first dibs on overtime work and provides an amnesty clause to protect striking workers from discipline.

Need ‘thick skin’ to lead union

Moore first started working at the company in June 1988 when it was still owned by Penford. He was in the grind department working third shift from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Ingredion, based in Illinois, announced in 2014 that it was buying the plant.

Within a few years, Moore became a department steward, then a shift steward mostly by accident.

“I got thrown into it,” he said. “Nobody wanted it. One of the senior guys goes, ‘Hey, we need a steward. You're going to be a steward.’ So I was handed the contract book and it was a lot of questions. I had probably four years of seniority and the rest of these guys had already been there between eight, 10, 15, 20 years on my shift, and I was representing them.”

Now, he’s a mobile supply operator who ensures all departments are stocked with the supplies they need. The son of a union firefighter in Marion and grandson of a Teamster, Moore has been president of the union since 2018 and is in his second term.

It was during his days as a steward where he picked up some of the skills that helped him strike a deal with Ingredion — to be patient, go with the process, know the do's and don'ts of what to say during a meeting with management.

This was his first contract to negotiate, Moore said, and he surrounded himself with a mix of people on the negotiation committee who were new to these talks as well, as a past president who had been in his shoes before.

“Anytime I went to the office, it was with one of the guys on my shift,” Moore said of his steward days. “It was, ‘You just sit there, I'll do the talking.’ And that's what I did, but I would listen and learn.”

To be a union leader, Moore said “you have to have thick skin and broad shoulders.” Sometimes he’s the voice for one worker in a disciplinary issue or simply relaying something to the company, and other times — such as with the strike — he represents a larger group.

Throughout negotiations, he knew the toll that being out of work took on his union members. They were without a paycheck and insurance, sometimes struggling to put food on the table, questioning when this would end so they could keep up with their bills and care for their families.

Any time he had to update members on how another round of negotiations went, Moore said, “I could see it in the members’ eyes that they were getting tired. They wanted answers that they deserved.”

And in the end, he still had members who were relieved the strike came to an end, and others who wished they’d held out longer for a better deal. He left the Jan. 22 vote confident that, after negotiating since July, there was nothing left on the table.

His wife, Kristin Moore, said the strike was a stressful time as they faced financial burdens that had an uncertain end date. He’d always take questions from union members, “so it was kind of a full-time, overtime job,” she said.

She tried to help him see both sides — the approach that both the company and union took — and offer ways he could mediate.

“He was wanting to help others and wanting what's the best for all the employees as a whole,” she said. “ … He really wanted to make sure that everybody was taken care of, or at least everybody as a whole was seen.”

Moore said he’s proud of the union workers who stood strong throughout the strike, and thankful for the support from other unions and people around the city, state and nation.

Without unions, he said, wages and benefits would not be where they are today — at Ingredion or any other company. In his view, the labor movement is gaining strength — fueled in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, when many of these plant employees were considered essential workers who had to work while the disease’s spread threatened their health and safety.

“Workers are tired of (chief executive officers) making $10 million a year or $15 million a year,” Moore said. “They're finally standing up and having a voice saying enough is enough.”

Return to work ‘not all rainbows’

For the first time since the strike began Aug. 1, 2022, workers returned to the plant starting Monday.

In the week leading up to the return, Moore said his restless nights were still plaguing him — not as persistent as during the strike, but worries plagued him as he contemplated all the ways it could go.

“It's going to take time to rebuild that trust,” Moore said. “It's not going to happen overnight. … The trust has to be there and the respect has to be there, and both sides have to earn the respect. The company has to earn the respect from the union and vice versa.”

The Cedar Rapids facility has lost many workers, Moore said, who mostly took other jobs as the strike stretched on through the holidays and opted not to return. The union started the strike with 116 workers and ended with 88, according to Moore.

As they fill in the gaps from vacancies, Moore said they’re now getting their share of overtime. It’s only the beginning of their return to the facility, so Moore said there’s been some training for workers on re-entering the plant, safety and other things intended to avoid conflict between management and union workers.

The big test, he said, is that Ingredion has made offers to the replacement workers that filled jobs while the union workers were on strike as they try to rebuild their laborforce. Moore said he’s advising his members that while there may be friction between these employees, they’re all there to get the job done together.

“We knew going back in it wasn’t going to be all rainbows and unicorns,” Moore said. “There were going to be problems that arise … The next couple months will be a big tell all how things are going to go.”

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