Ingredion striker hit by car Tuesday morning

CEDAR RAPIDS — Cedar Rapids police are investigating a report that a striking member of the Bakery Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union 100G was hit by a car while picketing outside the Ingredion facility in Cedar Rapids Tuesday morning.

Mike Moore, the local’s principal and president, told The Gazette he sent a few strikers to an Ingredion entrance near Cedar Rapids’ Eighth Avenue bridge Tuesday morning. He’d heard that some replacement workers were arriving at the plant through that entrance, even though it’s not an approved entrance, he said.

When the strike began in August, the corporation outlined a three-gate system. That meant only three entrances to the plant would be open during the strike — one for replacement workers, management and other non-union employees, one for non-union contractors such as vendors and cleaning crews, and one for union contractors.

The entrance by the Eighth Avenue bridge is not one of the three approved entrances. Picket lines mostly have been along First Street SW.

Four strikers were stationed at the entrance Tuesday morning, Moore said. A vehicle entered the parking lot without stopping for the protesters when they tried to cross in front of the car.

Union member Wayne Gregg was hit by the mirror of the car and knocked over. He was not injured.

“All they have to do is wait two minutes while everybody crosses because we can do one pass per vehicle (per the strike agreement), so all she had to do was just wait until we cleared it up for her so she could drive in,” Gregg said. “I looked and saw the car, but I didn’t think she was coming in that hard and fast. I figured she would stop.”

The car entered the parking lot and a passenger got out, the union said. As the driver was leaving the parking lot, she was confronted by the strikers. Gregg said she displayed a gun as she passed by.

Becca Hary, Ingredion’s director of corporate communications, confirmed that the person dropped off is an Ingredion employee, but she said the driver of the car did not work there.

“This is a police matter and we are fully cooperating with the investigation,” Hary said of the incident.

Moore wasn’t present when the incident occurred, but he was notified shortly after and he watched cellphone video of the incident that was taken by one of the other strikers. The union workers regularly use their phones to record video of vehicles that are entering the property in case of any incidents such as this, Moore said.

The Cedar Rapids Police Department received a report of the incident shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday. No one has been arrested. The investigation is ongoing, police said.

Union members have been on strike since Aug. 1. They last met in person with Ingredion leaders on Nov. 7 and 8. During those meetings they whittled down the number of disputed items from 26 to five.

The two sides met again over Zoom on Tuesday, Moore said, but no further progress was made. Another meeting is scheduled for Friday.

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com