2012 March
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
bctgm, bakers union, tobacco union, candy union, food workers, food workers union, grain millers, grain millers union, mondelez, nabisco, snack union,
-1
archive,date,bridge-core-2.5.9,qode-page-transition-enabled,ajax_fade,page_not_loaded,,qode-title-hidden,qode-theme-ver-24.4,qode-theme-bridge,disabled_footer_bottom,qode_header_in_grid,wpb-js-composer js-comp-ver-6.4.2,vc_responsive,elementor-default,elementor-kit-9096

Kalamazoo, MI. – If you drive by a Panera Bread Café on any given morning, you will be treated with the decadent smell of freshly baking bread and sweet goods, thanks to the artful skills of Panera Bread bakers. These bakers work from 10:00 p.m. each night to 6:00 a.m. each morning making sure fresh bread, rolls, cakes and other baked goods are carefully molded and baked in time for the early morning Café opening....

23 March, 2012

Earlier this week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) -- Chairman of the House Budget Committee -- unveiled the GOP budget plan and simply put, it's a disaster for working families and a boondoggle for insurance companies and the wealthiest one percent. Ryan's budget would end Medicare as we know it, eliminate the Affordable Care Act, drastically reduce Medicaid payments to states and increase tax breaks and handouts for wealthiest ONE PERCENT of America. The Ryan budget threatens...

22 March, 2012

CLC OTTAWA – CLC President Ken Georgetti met on March 14th with Francisco J. Barrio-Terrazas, Mexico’s ambassador to Canada. Georgetti and other Canadian union leaders expressed concern about the continuing abuse of trade union rights by the Mexican government. Georgetti was accompanied by Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, John Gordon, President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, and Ken Neumann, Canadian Director of the United Steelworkers. Georgetti provided the ambassador...

22 March, 2012

From the Roquette corn milling facility in Keokuk, Iowa, to American Crystal Sugar in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota and Cooper Tires in Findlay, Ohio, employers are turning to lockouts as a tactic to force union workers to accept major concessions when contract negotiations deadlock. For the BCTGM, the lockout of 1,300 workers at American Crystal Sugar is the most glaring example of the lengths to which employers will go to bust...

20 March, 2012

AFL-CIO-- The House Republican budget, crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R- Wis.) and unveiled today, provides a blueprint of what America would like look under Republican control, “a government of, by and for the 1%,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. House Republicans have dropped all pretenses and laid out their plan to destroy Medicare and Social Security….The Republican plan would not only keep Bush tax cuts for the wealthy from expiring,...

20 March, 2012

[caption id="attachment_2068" align="alignleft" width="243" caption="Photo credit: Lauren Casey, The Statehouse File"][/caption] On February 1, Indiana became the 23rd state—and the first manufacturing state—to institute a “right to work-for-less” law. Across the United States, these laws have depressed wages for union and non-union workers alike, and have contributed to unsafe working conditions. And the attacks on workers and their unions that began in full force in 2011 continue with several other states attempting to follow Indiana’s lead. In Ohio On...

13 March, 2012

BCTGM Local 492 (Philadelphia) members take tremendous pride in Tasty Baking Company’s rich heritage and bright future. Tasty Baking products have been well known throughout the company’s nearly 100 year history for consistent taste, quality, and freshness. And in 2010, the BCTGM Union Label brought added quality to every product made at the company’s Philadelphia bakery.     In 1914, a Pittsburgh baker, Philip J. Baur, and a Boston egg salesman, Herbert T. Morris, went into business in...

12 March, 2012

Mike Hall, AFL-CIO The nation’s economy added 227,000 jobs in February, but the unemployment rate remained steady at 8.3 percent according to the latest figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The jobless rate has dropped by 0.8 percentage points since August and remains at its lowest point since February 2009. The New York Times reports that are about 1.6 million more jobs now than were last April and the new jobs were...

09 March, 2012

  As we begin the new year, the immediate challenges that lie ahead for the BCTGM are as daunting as any this Union has faced in its long and proud history. Many employers in our industries are pursuing a destructive strategy of "my way or the highway" in their relationship with our Union. Tragically, the 1,300 BCTGM members at American Crystal Sugar remain locked out of the jobs they want to return to; jobs they so ably...

08 March, 2012

The Best Selling Cookie of the 20th Century In 1898, several baking companies merged to form the National Biscuit Company (NaBisCo), and opened a large industrial bakery in New York City on Ninth Avenue between 15th and 16th Streets at the Chelsea Market Building. By 1902, the company had its first nationwide success in Barnum’s Animal crackers, which were sold in boxes painted as animal cages. In 1912, Nabisco had an idea for a new cookie –...

06 March, 2012

Twin Cities Business magazine examines the lockout of 1,300 BCTGM members at American Crystal Sugar and the fate of the Farm Bill. "Despite escalating costs for all concerned, American Crystal Sugar is operating without 1,300 unionized factory workers locked out six months ago.  Upping the ante, the union threatens to pull support for the Farm Bill, which in turn could hurt the entire sugar industry." Click here to read/print the entire article....

05 March, 2012