30 Jun Building My Union Foundation

“If there’s one thing I could say that really shaped who I am today as a person, it would be growing up in a union family.”

– BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton, June 2021 BCTGM President’s Message

My father, Walter Shelton, started working at Colonial Bakery in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1952. It was a tough job, working six days a week. It was a great union job with good pay and benefits to raise a family.

My father became the President of Local 25 in Chattanooga and four years later, he became the Business Agent. As the Business Agent, he traveled all over the Southeast visiting our union shops. From Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee to Rome, Georgia and Huntsville, Alabama he visited all of the Local 25 shops, talking to union members.

My father believed that the most important job of a local union officer was providing service to the membership by going out and talking to the people every single day. As he walked through the plants, he would greet each worker by his or her name. Everyone knew who he was and I am certain he knew the name of most every member of Local 25 back then.

From my very earliest age, my father would take us to union meetings. Sometimes, we’d go on plant visits with him and sit in the break room while he talked to members or walked through the plant. He wanted us to understand what these hardworking people did for a living, the issues they faced and what his job was in trying to help them. These early experiences have helped shape the type of union leader I have become.

In 1973, there were only two bakeries in Chattanooga – Holsum Bakery and Colonial Bakery. At 18 years old, I went to work at the Holsum Bakery and later followed in my father’s footsteps to Colonial Bakery and later as a Local 25 union officer.

My father was a member of the BCTGM for 62 years, so you could say the union has always been in my blood.  

In the same spirit of my father, an honest and hardworking union man, I say to you that as your International Union President, I consider providing excellent service to our members as the highest priority of the BCTGM.

While we move forward on our organizing and member education goals, we remain deeply committed to keeping our roots grounded in servicing all of our members. If we’re building this union together, we need to stay connected as a community of brothers and sisters.

For me, it is so important to cultivate a deep respect for the people who do the work; the people who produce the food in this country; our essential workforce; our members.

We can only achieve this by visiting shops, talking to the men and women who make up this great union, understanding the issues our members face daily in the plant, in their lives and in their communities.

It is building relationships with our members that is at the very core of being a good labor leader who loves and respects his people as I do. Visiting plants, talking to members, understanding their concerns and acting upon them, and returning phone calls or emails, all of these are essential for our local leaders, our shop stewards, and our union activists.

I’ve been blessed in my career to work with some of the best union brothers and sisters, to have them as a team to help me get the job done for our members. I look forward to continuing that commitment as the great leaders who came before me did.

This union isn’t just a job to me – it is my life.