Protect workers. Decrease risk. Increase safety. Check out OSHA's guidance on implementing a COVID-19 Prevention Program in the workplace. OSHA has answers to questions about reporting work-related exposures to COVID-19. https://twitter.com/i/status/1357333085352849410 ...
The BCTGM welcomes the message released by leading scientific experts urging stronger protections for workers and the public due to proof that inhalation is the major route of transmission causing COVID-19 infections and outbreaks. Leading scientific and medical experts are calling upon the Biden Administration to take immediate action to address inhalation exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus as a cornerstone of the COVID-19 pandemic response. In a letter to the Biden administrationsโ top officials heading the...
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: โAmerica can only build back better if unions are doing the building.โ Today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and leaders from construction and manufacturing unions met with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss actions the administration can take to create good-paying union jobs, highlighting the need to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, COVID-19 relief and an infrastructure package. After the meeting,...
The February 4 announcement by Mondelฤz International that it would close bakeries in Fairlawn, N.J. (Local 719) and Atlanta, Ga. (Local 42) has been met with widespread criticism and outrage. BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton released this statement noting, "The BCTGM strongly believes that BCTGM unionized employees are the most productive and efficient workers in North America. Mondelฤz is taking a very short-sighted action in an effort to generate corporate profits while devastating communities and...
Statement from BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton concerning the Feb. 4 announcement by Mondelฤz that the company will shut bakeries in Atlanta, Ga. (Local 42) and Fairlawn, N.J. (Local 719): The BCTGM International Union was informed about the impending closing of Nabisco/Mondelฤz bakeries in Atlanta, Ga. and Fairlawn, N.J. directly from company officials. The BCTGM strongly believes that BCTGM unionized employees are the most productive and efficient workers in North America. Mondelฤz is taking a very short-sighted...
On February 4, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) along with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Congressman Robert C. โBobbyโ Scott (VA-03), Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA-12) introduced the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, comprehensive labor legislation to protect workersโ right to stand together and bargain for fairer wages, better...
John Sweeney, who led an era of transformative change in Americaโs 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....
President Biden has indicated he will seek to build worker power by strengthening unions. On election day eve, campaigning in western Pennsylvania, he promised to be โthe most pro-union president youโve ever seenโ. In his campaign platform, Biden endorsed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (Pro Act) which would make it easier for unions to organize workers. Americaโs labor laws are no longer an effective. The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act will provide...
The AFL-CIOโs has announced the 2021 Workers First Agenda. It is bold, comprehensive and exactly what America needs to meet this moment of pain and uncertainty. We urge Congress and the incoming Biden administration to seize this opportunity to transform the lives of working people through lasting, structural change starting with our five highest priorities: WORKER EMPOWERMENT: At the center of this agenda is the PRO (Protecting the Right to Organize) Act. WORKER SAFETY AND THE PANDEMIC:...
President-elect Joe Biden has announced that he has chosen Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to be his labor secretary. Walsh, 53, has served as the Democratic mayor of Boston since 2014. A former union member, Walsh has a long history with labor. He served as president of Laborers Local 223 and, before becoming mayor, led the Boston Building Trades of the AFL-CIO. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Walsh will be an "exceptional" labor secretary, stating: โBoston Mayor Marty Walsh...
Today, we recognize the historic election in Georgia and thank the union activists and organizers โ including scores of BCTGM members who helped make the victories of these two pro-union champions possible. With the election of Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, working people in Georgia and across the United States have ensured that their voices will be heard on Capitol Hill in 2021 and beyond. Now, we will have a pro-labor majority in the U.S....
The Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council hosted a โLetโs Get Out the Voteโ rally for U.S. Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock outside the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 613 headquarters in downtown Atlanta on Friday. โWorkers are the folk who make America great,โ You are the job creators. Weโve got to defend a livable wage. It is wrong to call people essential workers and not provide them with essential wages and essential benefits.โ - Rev....
(Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2020)โToo many of Americaโs workers are being killed on the job and face dangerous working conditions. The latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisticsโ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries shows that workers of color are especially high risk. In 2019, 5,333 workers died on the job, the largest number since 2007. That is an average of 15 workers dying each and every day. This does not include the enormous number...
This year marks the 70th anniversary for Annabelle Candy Company in Hayward, Calif. which is home to legendary BCTGM Local 125-made candy bars Abba-Zaba, Rocky Road, Big Hunk, U-NO and Look! By 1950, Altshulerโs candy was so popular that he opened a larger scale candy manufacturing business and named it after his daughter, Annabelle.Annabelle's is now run by Gary Gogol, Altshuler's grandson. Local 125 members continue to make candy at the same Hayward, California factory that...
This is a sweet Christmas cookie story. It is a story about how a second place winner becomes a confectionary legend. It is a story about a peanut butter cookie, topped with a BCTGM Local 464-made chocolate Hersheyโs kiss. Formally called the โpeanut blossom,โ these cookies are near-ubiquitous around holiday baking traditions. They are the ultimate Christmas comfort confectionโ and they came into being by accident. As the story has been told, a Ohio baker named...