Legislative News
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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In the early hours of this morning, Senate Republicans held a dramatic vote on their last ditch effort to to undo the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and gut Medicaid. The so-called “Skinny Repeal” would have repealed the ACA’s individual mandate and suspended the employer mandate for nine years, disrupting insurance markets and eliminating access to health care for 16 million Americans. Republican Senators Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK) and John McCain (AZ) joined all 48 Democrats...

28 July, 2017

1 in 4: The number of Americans with pre-existing conditions who could suffer if the Affordable Care Act is repealed. Today, the vast majority of House Republicans voted to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which should be expanded, not discarded. The BCTGM joins with the AFL-CIO and the entire labor movement in our call to Congress to create a health care system that works for working people. What You Need to Know: The Republican health care plan doubles down on...

04 May, 2017

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 “Cadillac” 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

Under intense pressure from the labor movement and the progressive community, the Senate voted 52 to 45 to block debate on Fast Track legislation that would have forbidden Congress from making amendments to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. BCTGM International President David Durkee urges union members to continue to put pressure on their members of Congress. "This is far from over. There is nothing pro-trade legislators and corporate lobbyists won't do to force this job-killing deal through Congress....

13 May, 2015

The BCTGM knows firsthand the hardship that results when multinational corporations, Wall Street and their political allies in Washington, D.C. team up to enact “free trade” agreements. In the last 20 years, many thousands of BCTGM members have lost their good, middle-class jobs because the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has made it easy and profitable for companies like Nabisco, Hershey and Kellogg to close plants in the U.S. and Canada and move production...

17 April, 2015

“U.S. Government Charges Kellogg with Serious Violations of Federal Law”  – BCTGM News Release, March 27, 2014 “Federal Government Seeks Immediate Court Action to End Illegal Memphis Lockout” – BCTGM News Release, April 5, 2014 What a difference a year can make! At this time last year, the labor movement was confronting one of its greatest challenges since the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act, the “Workers’ Bill of Rights”, nearly 80 years earlier.  The National Labor Relations Board...

15 May, 2014

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is now fully staffed and able to continue to function to protect workers’ rights after the U.S. Senate on July 30 confirmed five members. The votes end a months-long blockade on President Obama’s nominees by Senate Republicans who threatened to shut the board down August 27. The five members are current NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce; Nancy Schiffer, a former AFL-CIO associate general counsel; and NLRB attorney Kent Hirozawa, currently the...

01 August, 2013

AFL-CIO For 78 years, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has safeguarded the rights of workers to organize and collectively bargain to improve their wages, benefits and workplace environment. Next month, the NLRB’s power to protect more than 80 million private-sector workers could be further limited when the term of one of the current members is set to expire, leaving the board inoperable and without a quorum. Frustrated by Republican attempts to prevent a vote on President...

09 July, 2013

Prime Example of Why the Senate Must Confirm Obama’s Board Nominees  This is how hope turns into despair. More than a year since they voted to form a union, Panera workers in Michigan are still waiting. The franchisee that owns the Panera Bread stores in the region refused to recognize the BCTGM as the official representative of the bakers and refused to meet to bargain a first contract.  The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that Panera broke the...

13 June, 2013

Forty-two years have passed since the Occupational Safety Health (OSH) Act was signed into law. Now, Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has reintroduced the Protecting America’s Workers Act (PAWA) (S. 665) in an effort to strengthen the nation’s occupational safety protections.  She calls the legislation "a long-overdue update to the OSH Act, and a good step towards making workplaces safer and healthier across America." PAWA works to address workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths. Specifically, PAWA would expand OSH...

09 May, 2013

Photo: Joe Richard LANSING, Mich. -- More than 17,000 workers from all walks of life rallied yesterday outside the Michigan State Capitol building as anti-worker legislators heeded Gov. Rick Snyder’s call to divide Michigan by ramming through a so-called “right-to-work” bill which promises to kill jobs, lower wages, crush workers’ rights and unravel the middle class.  BCTGM members from throughout Michigan, including Locals 326 (Detroit), 3G (Battle Creek), 259G (Carrollton), 260G (Caro), 261G (Sebewaing), 262G (Croswell) and...

12 December, 2012

"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." --Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, October 2010 It has been said that the first casualty of war is the truth. Much the same can be said about political campaigns, especially a presidential race. Between now and Election Day, the American people will be inundated with hundreds of millions of dollars of political television and radio ads designed to...

23 August, 2012

AFL-CIO If anyone thinks U.S. manufacturing isn’t relevant to our lives today, they should consider this report from the Alliance for American Manufacturers pointing to the battle against raging wildfires in the western states: The Associated Press is reporting that the sole U.S. manufacturer of a device to spray airborne fire retardant is no longer in business. This means that while Air National Guard units currently possess Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems (MAFFS), new MAFFS systems are no longer being...

10 July, 2012

“I applaud the Supreme Court for upholding the Affordable Care Act.  American citizens finally won with this very important decision,” notes BCTGM International President Frank Hurt on the June 28 ruling. The Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. upheld the core of President Obama's healthcare law, ruling that the government may impose tax penalties on those who do not have health insurance by 2014. The decision came on a 5-4 vote. The Affordable...

28 June, 2012

AFL-CIO-- The House Republican budget, crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R- Wis.) and unveiled today, provides a blueprint of what America would like look under Republican control, “a government of, by and for the 1%,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. House Republicans have dropped all pretenses and laid out their plan to destroy Medicare and Social Security….The Republican plan would not only keep Bush tax cuts for the wealthy from expiring,...

20 March, 2012