Persevering through a nearly four-week-long strike against Earthgrains bakeries, some 4,000 workers are set to go back to work after negotiators reached a tentative agreement Sept. 21.

Members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers won a contract that improves wages and pensions and restores medical and dental insurance. The pact also includes a key provision limiting mandatory overtime—before the contract, many Earthgrains employees were required to work 16 hours a day, and many worked seven days a week.

Earthgrains, the nation's second-largest bakery, had terminated health insurance for 700 workers in Fort Payne, Ala., during the strike, leading the wife of one worker to call the tactic "medical blackmail."

The contract, if ratified, will cover workers in Fort Payne and Mobile, Ala. Contracts at other Earthgrains locations within the southern region are to be negotiated soon and will be patterned on the approved contract.

For more background information and for continuing coverage of the victory at Earthgrains, visit the BCTGM's website.