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Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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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

The IUF is leading a mass rally in Istanbul today that brings together trade unions and their political and civic allies in support of a long-running fight against worker rights abuses at Cargill Turkey. In April last year 14 workers were dismissed after they joined a union at the companyโ€™s starch and sugar factory in Bursa-Orhangazi โ€“ a Cargill facility where Turkish courts have confirmed a history of repeated firings for union activity. Cargill, it...

30 August, 2019

BCTGM International President David Durkee wrote the following column for the July/August BCTGM NEWS. For those who have watched the Trump Administration chop away at workersโ€™ rights, it was no big surprise when President Trump nominated Eugene Scalia for Secretary of Labor. Scalia โ€” son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia โ€” has made his reputation in Washington, D.C. as a lawyer for big corporations with a blatant disregard and disdain for...

29 August, 2019

The fight to protect and save our pensions now moves into the U.S. Senate where the Butch Lewis Act of 2019 (S. 2254), has been introduced. It is crucial that BCTGM members and retirees contact their Senators and urge them to support S. 2254. The BCTGM was a leader in getting the Multiemployer Pensions Act (H.R. 397) passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on July 24. But, our work is far from over. This...

20 August, 2019

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of thousands of BCTGM members, pensioners and other union members across the U.S., the U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to pass H.R. 397, the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act. The legislation is an essential step to help secure the retirement security of more than 1.5 million workers and retirees nationwide. โ€œMany experts told us as recently as last week that getting this to vote before the upcoming...

25 July, 2019

On Wednesday, July 24, the full U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on The Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act (H.R. 397), which strengthens pension plans and avoids retiree benefit reductions through long-term, low-interest loans to eligible plans such as the B&C Fund. It is critical that all BCTGM members, retirees together with families and friends, urge their U.S. Representatives to vote for H.R. 397: Take Action from the BCTGM E-Activist Center...

23 July, 2019

The House passed a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour in a win for labor and living wage activists who have fought hard to give low-wage workers a raise. The Democratic-held chamber passed the plan in a 231-199 vote. Six Democrats opposed it, while three Republicans supported it. The measure would gradually hike the U.S. minimum wage to $15 by 2025, then index further hikes to median wage growth. It would also...

19 July, 2019

Bipartisan multiemployer pension reform legislation creating a federal loan program for struggling plans was approved on July 10 by the House Ways and Means Committee. Before the committee vote, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), led a rally on Capitol Hill attended by BCTGM members, retirees and scores of other multiemployer pension fund union members pushing for the bill's passage. The bill, H.R. 397, introduced by House Ways and Means Committee...

16 July, 2019

The AFL-CIO released its annual Executive Paywatch report today, detailing how the gap between CEO and worker pay continues to grow. โ€œOur economy works best when consumers have money to spend. That means raising wages for workers and reining in out of control executive pay. This yearโ€™s report is a stark reminder that working people must use our collective voice to form bigger, stronger unions and rewrite the economic rules once and for all.โ€ โ€”AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer...

25 June, 2019

President Trump ran for office as a champion of American workers and a friend of labor unions, but his administration has systematically favored employers at the expense of workers. In recent months, the administration has moved to tighten qualifications for who must be paid the minimum wage and who must be paid overtime. It is asking the Supreme Court to rule that companies can fire workers on the basis of sexual orientation. The number of workplace...

04 June, 2019

Following a morning protest outside the Mondelฤ“z International Annual Meeting last Wednesday, BCTGM and Nabisco 600 supporters headed to the Hatchery Chicago โ€“ a food business incubator in East Garfield Park โ€“ to demonstrate against their new partnership with the company. The following is an excerpt from Block Club Chicago โ€“ read the full article here. EAST GARFIELD PARK โ€” Employees and retired workers of the Nabisco bakery staged a protest at the Hatchery Chicago in response...

22 May, 2019

For a forth year in a row,ย BCTGM union members from around the country descended on Lincolnshire, Ill. for the 2019 Nabisco/Mondelฤ“z shareholder meeting. Despite the rejection by last year's shareholders for the proposed CEO pay package, Dirk Van De Put's pay grew to be 489 times larger than the median employee pay - which decreased 28% in the same time period. Today, Nabisco workers in Mexico earn as little as 97 cents per hour, while their CEO...

22 May, 2019