The Dedication of a Lifelong Union Man: Local 116’s Bill Andre
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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21 May The Dedication of a Lifelong Union Man: Local 116’s Bill Andre

Posted at 09:21h in Local Union News by

“I come from a union family and unionism is in my blood. I am not just a union member – but I live a union life, through and through. It is who I am.”

-Bill Andre, Local 116 (Auburn, N.Y.) Business Agent/Financial Secretary.

Andre was born and raised in Auburn, located in Cayuga County on the north end of Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes, in Central New York.  He takes great pride in noting that Auburn was home to abolitionist Harriet Tubman while she helped lead slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Andre also notes that Auburn is the site of the maximum-security Auburn Correctional Facility, which is the city’s biggest employer and has employed generations of friends and residents.

Andre’s father was a union man, as was his extended family and friends. Growing up, union values were a “fact of life,” he says.

His father worked at Auburn’s American Locomotive Company (ALCO) factory making diesel engines for locomotives and later, General Electric. “He raised his family on union wages and union principles,” Andre adds.

When he was 17 years old, Andre got his first union job at the Auburn Hospital and became a proud member of AFSME 3124. In 2001, an ad in the local newspaper for a job at the Northeast Foods facility intrigued him, so he went down to the plant to apply and was hired that same day.

“This is back in the day when you could apply and be hired on the spot. As they say, the rest is history,” he notes.

Bill Andre in the Local 116 union office in downtown Auburn, N.Y.

The plant was later acquired by George Weston and then BIMBO Bakeries USA, which it remains to this day.

Andre worked many jobs in the bakery but held the position of divider operator the longest. In 2010, he became the business agent for Local 116 and proudly represents workers at the BIMBO facility as well as bakers at the Wegman’s wholesale bakery in Rochester, N.Y.

Andre serves his membership with the same union dedication and hard work he has maintained his entire life. Walking through the union bakeries, Andre greets each worker by his or her first name.

Andre is also an important part of the New York labor community. He is the President of the Cayuga Central Labor Council, as well as a delegate to the Rochester Genesee Valley Labor Federation and a delegate to the Central New York Labor Federation.

At 58 years old, Andre says he never looked back after being hired at the bakery 20 years ago. “It was a good job and I enjoyed working there, helping my brothers and sisters. All of my members are really good and hardworking people and make me proud every day,” concludes Andre.

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