Protect America's Bakers

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOTTHEIMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to stand up for New Jersey jobs and New Jersey workers who are the best in the world. In Fair Lawn, New Jersey, the men and women at Mondelez bake top-quality products like Oreos, Teddy Grahams, Ritz Crackers, Chips Ahoy, and Barnum's Animal Crackers.

Mr. Speaker, Americans who enjoy Oreos or animal crackers would be proud to know that these delicious cookies and crackers are produced right here in America. However, I believe they would be shocked to hear about some of the recent practices of the company that threaten these employees' retirement and will outsource their U.S. production jobs to Mexico, an issue that Democrats and Republicans alike are rightly sounding the alarm about.

In the past month, Mondelez announced its intention to withdraw from its employees' retirement plan that the company participated in for 60 years, setting the stage for a retirement catastrophe that could impact more than 100,000 American workers.

The men and women I represent have worked hard and played by the rules their whole lives, responsibly planning for their retirements, taking care of their families, doing what they need to do. Mondelez can't just change the rules mid-game as people prepare for their retirements.

Mr. Speaker, America's seniors deserve security when they retire, and our workers deserve nothing but the best. Destroying retirement income, shipping jobs overseas to low-wage countries, and eroding the middle class sets us on a dangerous and unsustainable path.

I stand with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers Local 719 in Fair Lawn and America's jobs. And I hope that Mondelez can sit down at the table and find a way to keep their commitments to New Jersey workers while continuing to make a great product in the United States of America and in New Jersey in the district that I represent.

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