Joseph Thibodeau
Executive Vice President

BCTGM International Executive Vice President Joseph Thibodeau was elected to his current position on July 17, 1998, during the union's 35th Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was re-elected to a second full term by delegates to the BCTGM's 36th Constitutional Convention in July 2002. Thibodeau was once again re-elected by delegates to the BCTGM's 37th Constitutional Convention in July 2006 to serve a third term.

Thibodeau, a native of the Portland, Maine area, was elected to fill the post of executive vice president by the union's General Executive Board in May 1998.

Thibodeau began his union career at Cushman Baking Company (Portland, Maine) in 1957. At that time, the bakery was non-union—but in 1963 Thibodeau organized the company, creating Local 166 of the American Bakery and Confectionery Workers (ABC), the AFL-CIO-affiliate bakery union.

He was elected financial secretary and business agent of the local in 1964 and was re-elected the following year. In 1966 he joined the ABC's International staff as an organizer and in 1967 was made an International Representative. Thibodeau remained on staff after the ABC and B&C reunited in 1969.

In 1972, he was appointed to assist the International representative in charge of auditing the union's U.S. locals. When the International representative he was working with was elected International vice president, Thibodeau took over as International representative and auditor.

Since that appointment, until his February 1994 election as International Vice President, Region I (Northeast), Thibodeau handled various special assignments, including acting as a local union trustee and/or supervisor. He was elected to a full four-year term at the 1994 Constitutional Convention.

He currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area. He is married and has three grown children and five grandchildren.

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