13 Sep The ESSENTIAL work of Local 48G

Along the Upper Mississippi River in Keokuk, Iowa, the French-based, family-owned Roquette Frères company employs 450 corn wet milling workers represented by BCTGM Local 48G (Keokuk, Iowa).

Roquette, which began as a single-location potato starch plant in Lestrem, France during the Great Depression, boasts 50 starch production locations around the world today. The Keokuk site was acquired by the company in 1991 from the Hubinger Co.—which owned and operated it for over 100 years prior.

“The work of these members is extremely important,” reports Midwest Region International Representative Ryan Hocke, who toured the plant in early March. “Coming out of a starch factory myself, I know the output well. People would be surprised to know how many products are made with the ingredients they produce,” he says.

Those products include items like chewing gum, toothpaste, sports drinks, medical IV solutions and more. The mill at the plant separates corn into various parts—germ, hull, protein, fiber and starch. Local 48G members operate production refineries which turn those parts into different ingredients depending on what Roquette customers need to make their products.

“It isn’t too much to suggest their jobs improve and save the lives of people all around the world,” Hocke continues. “The ingredients that come out of a plant like this are essential to the production of food and pharmaceutical products people depend on every day.”

Pictured below, Local 48G leaders show Hocke around the grounds of the Keokuk factory.