08 Mar President Hurt: “2012: A Year of Immense Challenge”

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 performed with professionalism and diligence for many years.

For more than six months, Crystal CEO Dave Berg has thumbed his nose at our members and their communities, as well as the Minnesota governor, the state’s two U.S. senators and numerous U.S. representatives. Berg is presiding over a company that has now joined the ranks of this nation’s worst corporate outlaws.

Through the years, lawmakers have realized that workers standing together in solidarity will lead to greater fairness and justice in the workplace. Therefore, lawmakers— the majority of whom are controlled by corporate money— use every bit of influence they have to impede labor solidarity and skew the laws in favor of management.

While our members at Crystal Sugar remain strong during their bitter struggle, more than 5,000 BCTGM members employed at Hostess Brands face a very uncertain future. The recent bankruptcy filing by this company, the largest employer of BCTGM members, will clearly show before the process is over that the bankruptcy laws in this country exist to protect the bankrupt company, its executives and Wall Street investors with no regard for a company’s active or retired employees.

Knowing that it has the upper hand in bankruptcy proceedings, Hostess has put forward demands to radically alter the present collective bargaining agreements. These demands are outrageous and unnecessary.

We have been left with no choice but to stand and fight for the benefits and standards that we have negotiated since the beginning of our collective bargaining relationship with Hostess and its predecessor companies.

In every set of negotiations with this company throughout the years, workers have deferred wages in order to build a secure future in their retirement only to see Hostess make a unilateral decision to cease its contractually obligated contributions to every pension plan in which its employees participate, including the B&C Fund, the largest of these pension funds.

The BCTGM is deeply offended by the company’s false claim that its financial woes are the result of its union contracts and pension obligations. This company is in dire financial shape because of a string of failed business decisions made by a series of ineffective executives who have been running this company for the past decade.

Multiple CEO’s with no experience in the bread and cake baking business implementing constantly-changing business plans that lack creativity and vision is the heart of this bankruptcy. For more than a decade, this company has squandered the talents and experience of a dedicated, skilled workforce.

The hedge funds and private equity firms that gain control of companies like Hostess have no loyalty to the employees, active or retired. They could not care less that the employees of Hostess will have to endure the consequences of their greed. They only care about making money.

I want to assure all of our members at Hostess that we will do everything possible to represent your interests and those of this International Union during this painstaking process.

And to our members at companies with which we will be in negotiations this year, such as Kraft and Kellogg, I want to assure you that the leadership team heading up these negotiations will uphold the highest standards that are the hallmark of BCTGM contracts, regardless of any adverse bargaining tactics companies might employ.

The impact on our Union of this new, renegade corporate mentality has been harsh, inflicting enormous pain on many of our members. In all honesty, I must say that the road ahead will likely get more difficult for a while.

Nonetheless, I am certain that our Union will effectively meet these immense challenges and emerge from this storm intact and, in some ways, as an even stronger Union.

I am confident in this outcome because I have the greatest faith in our members, our local union leadershipand our International Union officers and staff who stand by my side.

Above all, I know that corporate greed and immorality cannot break the iron will and battle-tested solidarity that bind this Union together. 

–Frank Hurt, BCTGM International President