MICHIGAN — A federal judge has ordered snack food giant Kellanova to enter arbitration with Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers Union Local 70, ruling that the dispute over worker promotions stems from contract terms that remain enforceable despite the collective bargaining agreement’s expiration.
U.S. District Judge Robert J. Jonker issued the ruling Friday in the Western District of Michigan, siding with the union in a case involving two grievances tied to Kellanova’s alleged failure to promote transitional employees to full-time status under a contract that expired in April 2021.
The Kellanova union arbitration dispute stems from grievances filed in August 2021, in which the union claimed a group of workers had accrued the right to be elevated from transitional to regular employees based on seniority and existing promotion criteria.
Obligation to Arbitrate Survives Expired Contract
Though the 2017–2021 agreement has since been replaced, Judge Jonker ruled that arbitration is still required due to surviving obligations and the need to interpret contract language from the previous deal. “The company has been under an uninterrupted [collective bargaining agreement] obligation to arbitrate unresolved grievances from at least May 1, 2017, to the present,” he wrote.
Kellanova argued that the complaints were moot since they relate to a now-defunct agreement, but the judge disagreed, emphasizing that the promotion mechanism in question represented a vested benefit for workers who had already met the criteria before the agreement expired.
Using a vivid metaphor, Judge Jonker compared the situation to “cars waiting on an on-ramp to merge onto a busy highway,” arguing that these workers had fulfilled their waiting period and should not be penalized simply because the on-ramp closed. “The waiters can either get in a new line with everyone else or simply accept access to the highway on new and different terms,” he added.
