Labor News
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
bctgm, bakers union, tobacco union, candy union, food workers, food workers union, grain millers, grain millers union, mondelez, nabisco, snack union,
-1
archive,category,category-labor-news,category-21,bridge-core-2.5.9,qode-page-transition-enabled,ajax_fade,page_not_loaded,,qode-title-hidden,qode-theme-ver-24.4,qode-theme-bridge,disabled_footer_bottom,qode_header_in_grid,wpb-js-composer js-comp-ver-7.9,vc_responsive,elementor-default,elementor-kit-9096

John Sweeney, who led an era of transformative change in Americaโ€™s labor movement, passed away February 1 at the age of 86. Sweeney was one of four children born to Irish immigrants in a working-class Bronx neighborhood shortly after the Great Depression. His parents, James and Agnes Sweeney, worked as a bus driver and a domestic worker, respectively. Sweeney always understood the struggles and the pride of working people. Sweeney was interested in politics from childhood....

03 February, 2021

The BCTGM joins with the AFL-CIO and the entire labor movement in commending the Democrat-controlled U.S. House for taking the most significant step toward strengthening labor laws in the United States in more than 85 years. Americaโ€™s labor laws are no longer an effective means for working people to have our voices heard. The long overdue PRO Act will provide significant protections for workers exercising their legal right to form a union, a...

07 February, 2020

When Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders attacking the rights of federal government workers, he wasnโ€™t prepared for the response from working people. Our response, led by AFGE, included filing lawsuits to stop the orders and rallying across the country in support of federal workers. Now a federal judge has agreed with working people that these executive orders are illegal. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ruled that key provisions of the three executive orders are...

29 August, 2018

Repost from our Brothers and Sisters at the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)- the largest federal employee union representing 700,000 federal and D.C. government workers nationwide and overseas.ย  The richest 1 % of American households now own 40% of the country's wealth, and theyโ€™re fighting tooth and nail to keep it that way. Thatโ€™s why we see corporate-backed politicians doing everything they can to take away our voice, our rights, our freedom to join in...

05 March, 2018

A coalition of 11 Disneyland unions is calling on the Anaheim, Calif. resort to raise its base wage to $20 an hour after a survey of 5,000 workers found many were hard-pressed to pay for food and medical expenses and 11 percent said they experienced homelessness in the past two years. According to a 125-page report “Working for the Mouse,” , federal census and economic data show the average hourly wage for Disneyland resort workers dropped to...

28 February, 2018

An impending U.S. Supreme Court decision threatens the right of public employees to union representation and collective bargaining, and it is a decision that will โ€œhit every public-sector worker across this country,โ€ says Corey Upchurch, a school bus driver for special needs children in Washington D.C. โ€œJust imagine if money is taken off your table, or youโ€™re not able to send your child to college or you not able to retire because you donโ€™t have a...

27 February, 2018

  In late January,ย the Bureau of Labor Statistics released data on changes in union membership from 2016 to 2017. It was good news for workers, as the total number of union members grew by 262,000 in 2017. Three-fourths of these gains (198,000) were among workers aged 34 and under, who account for less than 40 percent of total employment. According to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), historically, younger workers have been less likely...

16 February, 2018

St. Louis, Mo. โ€” Corrina Christensen, Director of Communications & Public Relations, and Michelle Ellis, Director of New Media & Graphic Arts, are representing the BCTGM International Union this week at the 2017 International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) Convention. The Convention began with a plenary panel, "Confronting Right-to-Work and Building a Workers' Movement" that was moderated by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Panel participants included MaryBe McMillan, President of the North Carolina AFL-CIO, Nora Loreto, Canadian Association...

20 October, 2017

Together with the Mother Jones Museum and the Mother Jones Heritage Project, BCTGM Local 4 (St. Louis) participated in a special 180th Birthday celebration for the legendary Mother Jones. Retired BCTGM International Vice President Jeanne Graham, a life-long admirer of the legendary Mother Jones and a major supporter of the Mt. Olive, Ill.-based Mother Jones Museum, helped coordinate the creation of a BCTGM-made cake to commemorate the life of Mother Jones. Theย special 180th birthday cake was...

01 May, 2017

The Verizon fight, the biggest strike in recent history, proved that when working people stand together and fight back, we can win. Communications Workers of America (CWA) issued the following statement in response to the agreement reached between striking workers and Verizon last week: Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers who have been on strike since April 13 are celebrating big gains after reaching a tentative agreement with the company. After 45 days of the largest strike in...

31 May, 2016

The BCTGM, together with the AFL-CIO, has gone on the offensive to convince Congress and the Obama Administration, that a 40 percent excise tax on so-called โ€œCadillacโ€ health care plans will have a detrimental effect on union workers who have sacrificed to maintain quality health care coverage for themselves and their families. The tax is part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and would force employers to pay a 40 percent tax on health benefits that...

22 September, 2015

Labor Day is a welcome, and well-deserved, day off for millions of American workers and their families. But itโ€™s worth remembering that Labor day is more than just a three-day weekend. Labor Day โ€œis a creation of the labor movement" and is โ€œdedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.โ€ Here are four important accomplishments of the labor movement that benefit all Americans: 1) Unions Helped End Child Labor. Union organizing and child labor reform were...

04 September, 2015

The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) is committed to empowering union women.ย  Part of that commitment includes providing union women with important preventive health information. Taking that commitment to another level, CLUW recently released a short survey to aid in the development of a special online feature devoted to womenโ€™s health, with a particular focus on prevention. According to CLUW President Connie Leak, the survey is designed to help discover what digital media union women...

31 August, 2015

A new Gallup poll released this week shows that public approval of unions has risen by five percentage points over the past year, reaching 58% positive, the highest point since a 59% approval rating in 2008 and significantly higher than the all-time low of 48% approval recorded in 2009....

28 August, 2015

After 34 years with the International Union, Ray Scannell, the Director of the BCTGM International Union Research & Education Department, will retire on November 1. Scannell came to the BCTGM not long after graduating with a Masterโ€™s degree in organizational behavior from the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. His first position at the Union was staff assistant in the Department of Research & Education. [caption id="attachment_4686" align="alignright"...

01 November, 2014