News Blog
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,
19449
blog,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

“Republican politicians can say they are pro-worker, but they have to show they are pro-worker by recognizing workers’ crucial right to organize and bargain,” Georgetown Professor/Labor Historian Joseph McCartin told the BCTGM Voices Project podcast on October 31. The podcast discussion, recorded a week before the 2024 presidential election, was moderated by BCTGM Communications Director Michelle Ellis and joined by Organizing Director John Price. It provided a look-back on the legislative journey of Labor through the...

07 November, 2024

October 31, 2024 – Nearly 200 members of BCTGM Local 114 (Portland, Ore.), who make Franz bread products for United States Baking Company in Springfield, Ore., have initiated a ULP strike against the company. The workers are striking over scheduling issues, work-life balance and low pay relative to the industry. “Our Franz members want a more just and fair scheduling system. We have proposed following Oregon’s new 'Predictive Scheduling Law' that would give our members more notice on...

31 October, 2024

October 28, 2024 – 165 members of BCTGM Local 36G (Buffalo, N.Y.), who make Milk-Bone brand dog treats for J.M. Smucker Co. in Buffalo, have initiated a ULP strike against the company. Download a Fact Sheet. The workers are fighting against an increased cost to their health care, low wages and the company’s blatant disrespect for the law and its employees. “The union members had hoped to improve their sub-par medical plan when they entered bargaining,” reports Chief...

28 October, 2024

By Anthony Shelton, BCTGM International President Every four years, American citizens have the opportunity to go to the polls to vote for the President of the United States. The ability to vote in a free and fair election is the foundation of a democratic society, and it is up to each and every one of us to participate in this important process. Sadly, close to half of eligible voters in the U.S. do not vote. One group...

09 October, 2024

For Immediate Release: September 19, 2024Contact: Lisa Gregory, BCTGM International Representative, (301) 335-3722 Print this (PDF) London, Ky. — Eleven-year employee Ben Nolan of the Hearthside Food Solutions (HFS) bakery in London, Ky. has been illegally fired from his job for activities related to organizing a Union. Hearthside is owned by two private equity companies, Partners Group and Charlesbank. Nolan was unjustly targeted by management at the bakery when he emerged as a leader in an April 2024 Union...

19 September, 2024

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...

13 September, 2024

After 27 years with the International Union, Corrina Christensen, Director of Public Relations and Communications, retired on July 1. Christensen was hired as a publications coordinator and assistant editor by International President Frank Hurt in 1998. She was later named Director of Internal Communications, a position she held until being appointed to the Director of Public Relations and Communications in 2001, following the retirement of Carolyn Jacobson. A third generation Union member, Christensen began her career as...

13 September, 2024

Members of BCTGM Local 366G (Oklahoma City, Okla.) have overwhelmingly ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with Nestle Purina in Oklahoma City. The four-year agreement features a $1.30 wage increase each year, for a total of $5.20 over the term of the contract. The bargaining committee also secured an additional paid holiday (Juneteenth), plus two additional personal floating holidays, for a total of four. In addition, the new contract increases the tool allowance and bereavement leave for...

13 September, 2024

On Tuesday, August 27, 2024, 22 maintenance unit workers employed at Hearthside Food Solutions (“Hearthside”) in Michigan City, Ind. filed for an election to be represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM). The workers at the Michigan City bakery have developed their organizing campaign in solidarity with two other Hearthside facilities in McComb, Ohio and London, Ky. In recent months, the maintenance unit workers in Michigan City grew more assured...

04 September, 2024

BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton’s response to President Joe Biden’s decision to end his campaign for re-election: The BCTGM International Union owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to Joe Biden for the ways he has supported BCTGM members over the last 3.5 years. Joe Biden was—and is—the most pro-worker, pro-Union president of our lifetime. His legacy will show that he delivered time and again for BCTGM members on the most critical issues working families faced: Biden delivered...

22 July, 2024

SOLIDARITY was the theme yesterday as President Biden made a visit to the AFL-CIO Executive Council (which BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton sits on) to reaffirm his commitment to Union workers and their families. In the last four years, BCTGM members have benefited greatly from the President’s commitment to collective bargaining and pension reform. President Biden’s public support for Kellogg workers on strike in 2021 helped BCTGM members win that strike. Letter from President Biden to BCTGM...

11 July, 2024

BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton traveled to the BCTGM Local 464 (Hershey, Pa.) Union Hall today—along with members and retirees of BCTGM Local 6 (Philadelphia, Pa.)—for an historic update on pension reform from White House Senior Advisor and American Rescue Plan (ARP) Implementation Coordinator Gene Sperling and U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA). Sperling and Casey informed the members that the promise of pension reform has been fulfilled for 103,000 BCTGM workers and retirees. Without the historic...

21 June, 2024

Members of BCTGM Local 358 (Richmond, Va.) were pleasantly surprised to host BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton during a recent service visit from their Union reps. “I was heading down there for a plant tour with Local 358 Financial Secretary/Business Agent Darlene Carpenter and found out President Shelton would be in the area,” explains East-Central Region International Representative Lisa Gregory. “We coordinated to have him join us and the plant manager was really accommodating in helping...

19 June, 2024

Members of BCTGM Local 264 (Toronto) employed at two Concord Confections locations in Vaughan, Ont. have voted to overwhelmingly accept an historic 5-year contract. Negotiations were led by Canadian Region International Vice President Ron Piercey and included Negotiating Committee members International Representative Karl Walker, Local 264 Business Agent Bill Hegedus and Members Muniruddin Ahmed, Quan Hoc Duong, Bing Zhong Lin, Earl Lucier, Alex Melkonian, Navaneethan Navaratnam, Eslyn Smith and Robert Ziniuk. For the first time ever, the...

11 June, 2024

Three terminated BCTGM Local 85 (Fresno, Calif.) members have returned to work following a Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) hearing related to a grievance they filed late last year. Mathew Galicia, Hector Lopez and Luis Herrera are import sales delivery drivers at the Bimbo Sales Center in Fresno, Calif. Their division makes import snacks such as Takis and Marinela Pastries. The Local 85 members were fired last October for logbook procedures they had been practicing—and...

07 June, 2024