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- Danny DeVito and striking Oreo factory workers are calling for a boycott of Nabisco products.
- Workers are demanding better pay and pushing against Nabisco's proposed 12-hour shifts.
- Boycotts rarely impact a company's sales, but they can damage a company's reputation.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Workers in every major Oreo-manufacturing factory in the US are striking, and their call for a boycott of popular Nabisco products like Oreos, Ritz Crackers, and Triscuits was recently bolstered by the support of the famous actor Danny DeVito, Yahoo Finance reported.
"Support Nabisco workers striking for humane working hours, fair pay, outsourcing jobs. NO CONTRACTS NO SNACKS," the "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" star said in a tweet that garnered 160,000 likes.
-Danny DeVito (@DannyDeVito) August 18, 2021
Over 1,000 Nabisco workers are striking over contract negotiations, with the company's proposed 12-hour shifts becoming one of the most contentious sticking points for workers. Workers are also demanding better pay and an end to outsourcing to Mexico.
Although public figures with large followings such as Danny Devito and Bernie Sanders have tweeted their support for Nabisco workers, boycotts usually fail in undercutting a targeted company's sales, according to The New York Times.
Although boycotts can damage a company's brand, a fast-moving news cycle and constant barrage of information from social media often leads boycotts to fade within a few days if they don't have strong and sustained participation.
Mike Burlingham, a worker at the Portland bakery and the vice president of the local union, told Insider's Juliana Kaplan that the unions had recieved strong support for the strike and that anger had been simmering among workers for a long time.
Mondelez International, the parent company of Nabisco, said it's bargaining in good faith with union leadership and that it was disappointed in workers' decisions to go on strike.
"If Nabisco can rake in billions of dollars in corporate profits, they can afford to treat their workers with dignity and respect," Bernie Sanders said in a tweet.