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Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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The BCTGM offers our deepest gratitude to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal, and Senators Sherrod Brown and Ron Wyden for their tireless efforts to ensure that the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a victory for American workers. "They truly are champions for American workers and stood strong throughout this long process as the labor movement continued to demand a truly enforceable trade agreement," reflects BCTGM International President David...

11 December, 2019

Today, the AFL-CIO endorsed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). For nearly two years, the labor movement has been at the forefront in renegotiating NAFTA. The BCTGM worked extensively with the AFL-CIO throughout this process to help secure a trade deal that benefits working people and supports good, middle-class jobs in the U.S. and Canada. For the first time, there truly will be enforceable labor standardsโ€”including a process that allows for the inspections of factories...

10 December, 2019

On November 20, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced a proposal โ€œto avert the collapse of critically underfundedโ€ union pension plans. This plan comes as a white paper in order to solicit comment ahead of an actual bill being introduced, the timing of which is unclear at this time. Today, the AFL-CIO Retirement Security Working Group released a statement...

02 December, 2019

In Portland, Maine on a recent chilly Saturday morning, BCTGM Local 334 Business Agent John Jordan held a special meeting for Local 334 retirees. The purpose of that meeting? To explain the Butch Lewis Act of 2019 (S. 2254) and the importance of contacting U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) to urge her support of the legislation. It is crucial that ALL BCTGM members and retirees across the country contact their Senators and urge them to support...

15 November, 2019

In early October, maintenance workers at the new Purina pet food plant in Hartwell, Ga. voted to join BCTGM Local 42 (Atlanta). This organizing win followed the successful election of quality control workers at the Fairburn, Ga. pet food facility, also represented by Local 42. The Hartwell plant opened in early 2018 as a distribution center while the production facility was being built. In May 2018, workers at the new plant reached out to the BCTGM...

08 November, 2019

Make your Halloween celebrations and festivities ones that support the hard work of BCTGM members by filling your cauldrons and treat bags with these BCTGM-made treats!  ...

30 October, 2019

Retired BCTGM Local 6 (Philadelphia) members, Mine Workers, IBEW, Teamsters and other union retirees from across the country gathered on Capitol Hill on October 16 to urge Senate actionย to protect the pensions that workers have earned. Democratic Senators at the press conference included U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI),Patty Murray (D-WA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). โ€œYou have Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, and...

17 October, 2019

The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act has passed a major milestone and was voted out of committee. Now, itโ€™s poised for a vote on the floor of the U.S. House. But the fight isnโ€™t over. We need members of Congress to keep up the momentum to get the PRO Act passed. Help us keep up the pressure: Please add your voice and ask your representative to become a co-sponsor of H.R....

16 October, 2019

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor advanced theย Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, H.R. 2474, a bold proposal to ensure American workers can organize and negotiate for higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions. In response to rising income inequality that is leaving workers and middle-class families behind, theย PRO Actย would empower millions of Americans to stand together and negotiate for a fair share of the profits they produce. A recent...

26 September, 2019

BCTGM International staff gathered outside the U.S. Capitol with Federal and DC government employees to protest the Trump administration's war on federal workers. AFGE, NFFE, NTEU, and IFPTE hosted the Day of Action to protest the Trump Administrationโ€™s efforts to undermine federal employee unions. "We're taking to the streets because we're fed up with baseless attacks on the American worker, fed up with retaliation against whistleblowers, fed up with bad-faith bargaining at the negotiating table, and...

24 September, 2019

We need a labor secretary who is truly committed to upholding the Departmentโ€™s missionโ€”โ€œto foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.โ€ Eugene Scalia has fought against workersโ€™ interests his whole career. As a corporate lawyer, Scalia has a long track record of putting corporate interests above workersโ€™ rights, and undermining worker...

17 September, 2019

BCTGM International President David B. Durkee and Secretary Treasurer Jethro Head continue discussions with President Napoleรณn Gรณmez Urrutia, President and General Secretary of the Mexican Union of Miners and Metalworkersโ€™ Union, (known as Los Mineros), and a Mรฉxico National Senator regarding NAFTA 2.0 (USMCA) and Mondelez Nabisco at during the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Chicago. ...

12 September, 2019

In a historic meeting yesterday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka met with Mexican President Andrรฉs Manuel Lรณpez Obrador to discuss significant flaws in the proposed new NAFTA agreement. As Trumka told reporters last week, the deal is still not enforceable as written. In particular, Mexico has yet to demonstrate that it has the resources and infrastructure to follow through on its promised reforms. โ€œWe need President Lรณpez Obrador to show us how Mexico will guarantee...

05 September, 2019

On Labor Day, we carve out time to recognize and honor the wonderful achievements of Americaโ€™s working people. Many of us will spend the day with close family and dear friends at a barbecue, picnic or other community event. While we enjoy the fellowship of our loved ones, it is important to reflect on what strengthens and nurtures the lives and communities of working people and how we can continue to protect our ability to...

31 August, 2019

64% of Americans approve of labor unionsSince 1970, higher only in 1999 (66%) and 2003 (65%)Up 16 points from 2008, with party groups showing similar increases According to a recent Gallop poll, 64% of Americans approve of labor unions, surpassing 60% for the third consecutive year and up 16 percentage points from its 2009 low point. This comes 125 years after President Grover Cleveland signed a law establishing the Labor Day holiday after a period...

30 August, 2019