This is a post from FW Nick Normal, concerning Bunge Foods and activity here in St. Louis, as of February 2nd, 1998.
Likewise as the phrase "Are You Furious?" was coined by the IWW as a rebutted attempt to run parallel to the Borders Books & Music slogan "Are You Curious?", so, we shall do the same with the Bunge Foods slogan "Ingredients for Success" - Bakery, Food Service, Dairy, Food Processor - and change it to "Ingredients to Oppress"; these being Racism, Anti-Union, Discrimination, Corrupt Management.
Bunge Foods has been referred to as being "The innovative leader in the manufacturing and marketing of products to the food service industry." Instead this should be changed to "The innovative leader in the manufacturing and marketing of attacks on Black workers," even though this 'innovation' isn't all that new: supporting racist white workers in their attacks, and firing the Black workers for standing up for their rights.
For those of you who have on-line service, the FoodShow home page (http://www.foodshow.com/) will link you to a "More about Bunge Foods" sub-section, where they refer to Bunge as having "been a major force in international agribusiness for almost 200 years." Meanwhile, the Bakery-Net (http://www.bakery-net.com/rdocs/cobun.html) puts this figure at only 75 years. You can also connect to Bunge's home page (http://www.bungefoods.com), although it's pretty bland, with only one link working.
It seems too, that Bunge has developed enough of a following over the course of however many years, to not only produce "prepared foods", such as oils, icings, fillings, et cetera, but also to have a product line consisting of hats, shirts, and books on the preparation of certain products.
Easily enough, you can contact your local Bunge representative by calling 1-800-828-0800; I suggest asking whether or not Bunge has a distributor in your area, and then finding out who carries Bunge-related products, so as we can pamphlet or petition these places to stop carrying Bunge products until they replace their racist management with a better management: industrial unionism!
It seems to me that Bunge has a majority of their processing plants located in the Midwest of the United States, with plants in Chattanooga, Tennessee, headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, a "Bunge Foods Group" in Illinois, and so-on, although they do deal internationally.
I took a ride out to the Bunge WORLD headquarters on February 2nd, and while I was unable to find the actual Bunge HQ (11720 Borman Dr., 63146), I'll tell you that the area that it lies in is filled with nothing but World headquarters and managerial centers; a total waste of space! Likewise, it would be a waste of time for the St. Louis GMB to hold pickets outside of the HQ, which is theoretically filled with nothing but the bosses, so the next step here is to find out local carriers and distributors, if any, and take action from there.
We'll try and keep you up-to-date on any findings, but meanwhile support your brothers and sisters and boycott Bunge Foods!
-Nick Normal X345050