05 Sep The Rich History and Surprising Future of BCTGM Tobacco Workers

Founded in 1895, the Tobacco Workers’ International Union (TWIU) was the official Union representing tobacco industry workers for much of the 20th century. In its early days, the Union’s biggest fight was against a large holding company called the American Tobacco Company – which had monopolized the tobacco market in the United States (see below: Union Label Becomes a Hot Commodity for more).

The decades to follow would see challenges that similarly mirrored the times: Rapid membership growth during World War I, followed with sweeping losses due to new management offensives. Racial division sowed by the Union’s top officers, which led to an internal insurgency to overthrow its conservative national leadership in the 1930’s and elect a more diverse guard.

Shifts in labor law, anti-smoking pressures, new technology and more would eventually push the Union to identify like-minded AFL-CIO-CLC International Unions that the tobacco workers could merge with.

In 1978, the TWIU officially teamed up with the Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union (B&C) to form the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers International Union (BC&T). Then-TWIU President Renee Rondou writing of the decision:

“With the increasing trend of tobacco companies to buy out companies in other industries in order to protect their money in the face of anti-smoking pressures, several firms in the baking industry were purchased and are now controlled by tobacco companies. Consequently, many members of the Bakery Workers and Tobacco Workers are now working for the same employer.”

Today’s North American tobacco employers have embraced anti-smoking sentiments and shifted to find success in the changing landscape.

“In Canada, tobacco companies aren’t allowed to advertise at all anymore, but they have figured out how to profit from telling people not to smoke,” says BCTGM Local 261T (Quebec, Canada) President Pierre-Luc Doucet.

“The media found it very newsworthy, for instance, that Philip Morris (one of the largest tobacco companies in the world) would so aggressively encourage people to stop smoking,” he says. “This opens the door for the company to say— ‘well, we have this new product called IQOS (vape brand), which can help you stop smoking.’”

Cigarette-smoking has faced a diminished outlook legislatively and in the shifting of public opinion in both the U.S. and Canada. Tobacco companies in the South have also found ways to come out on top, according to BCTGM Local 196T (Owensboro, Ky.) President Kevin Lindsey.

“We have gone from about 160 employees here at the old Red Man Chew facility in Owensboro (owned by Swedish Match and recently acquired by Philip Morris International) to now approaching 1,300 in just five or six years,” he says.

This meteoric growth has been the effect of a tobacco industry innovation which has taken the U.S. industry in particular by storm: the nicotine pouch. Members of Local 196T at the factory specifically manufacture the brand called Zyn.

“Zyn is a nicotine-based product, portion controlled into single pouches, and they come in a can,” Lindsey continues. “They go in your lip similar to loose tobacco or snuff, but it’s a cleaner alternative. There’s no spitting involved, which has really appealed to people.”

Remarkably, Local 196T—which operates in Right-to-Work Kentucky—has managed to convert every single one of those new workers into BCTGM members.

“They flock to the Union,” says Local 196T Financial Secretary Mike Aldrich. “It’s just a matter of staying consistent with our representation—the influence we’ve earned from that alone makes it as easy as showing up and doing the administrative work to register the new-hires.”

That consistency mostly involves leadership presence at the factory during every shift, and holding regular education trainings. “We hold education classes multiple times a week and at different times of the day so we can accommodate all shifts,” Lindsey says.

BCTGM tobacco workers and their employers are acutely aware of the cultural challenges that constantly hover over their industry—but there’s a level of confidence in the fight that seems baked in. “We’re in this together, and that applies to the members and the company,” says Lindsey. “It’s been challenging, but also really exciting.”

If history is any indication, their Union jobs will be as safe as their willingness to fight for them.

Union Label becomes a Hot Commodity

In its early days, the biggest challenge facing the TWIU was a huge holding company called the American Tobacco Company, which was monopolizing the tobacco market in the U.S. TWIU Secretary-Treasurer E. Lewis Evans warned in 1899, “This consolidating of factories under one roof will lessen the expense of manufacturing so that the Trust can cut prices and drive all the independent factories out of business.”

Evans was referring to the ‘Tobacco Trust,’ as the American Tobacco Company came to be known. “The Trust is trying to buy out all the firms who are making success with the [Union] Label,” he later said. “You see, we build up the business for a man, then he sells out to the Trust.”

The TWIU grew a lot of respect with members of the AFL as it hammered away at this practice with an aggressive Union Label campaign. The vintage advertisement above informing, “Union men say they will not use the following brands of tobacco”–all brands which had sold out to the Trust.

The Union Label in all industries would gain power from this campaign–signaling a company’s alignment with its workforce and an indication of quality, trusted craftsmanship.

As the Union grew clout within the tobacco market, it would also negotiate contract terms with its companies in exchange for rights to print the Union Label on their products.

Federal regulators would eventually file an anti-trust suit against American Tobacco, and the U.S. Supreme Court ordered it dissolved in 1911.

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In June, the BCTGM Voices Project podcast interviewed leaders in the BCTGM Tobacco Sector.

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