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Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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Nearly 50 years ago, in 1970, Congress enacted the OSH Act, promising workers in this country the right to a safe job. More than 594,000 workers now can say their lives have been saved since the passage of the OSH Act. Since that time, workplace safety and health conditions have improved. But too many workers remain at serious risk of injury, illness or death as chemical plant explosions, major fires, construction collapses and other preventable...

27 April, 2019

Like all hard-working union members, BCTGM Local 6 (Philadelphia) members at the Lehigh Valley, Pa. value their multiemployer pension, which has been negotiated into their collective bargaining agreements. BCTGM Local 6 members at the BIMBO Bakeries USA plant in Lehigh Valley, Pa. took time during a recent (union) break to send emails to their U. S. Representatives to urge support for H.R. 397, the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act.ย  The legislation calls for long-term, low-interest loans...

26 April, 2019

Mondelez-Nabisco labor practices in Salinas Victoria, Mexico were the subject of discussion when BCTGM International President David Durkee met with Mexicoโ€™s chief trade negotiator, Dr. Jesus Seade, and Mexican labor leader and Senator Napoleon Gomez Urrutia recently. Mexicoโ€™s new government under President Lopez Obrador is looking toward labor reforms โ€“ and the BCTGM hopes that Mondelez-Nabisco could become a focus in targeting corporate practices of worker exploitation, poverty wages, and union protection contracts in the country. In...

17 April, 2019

This year we will come together to call for action on hazards that cause unnecessary injury, illness and death.ย We will stand united against the ongoing attacks on workers' rights and protections and demand that elected officials put workers' well-being above corporate interests. The Occupational Safety and Health Act and Mine Safety and Health Act promise workers the right to a safe job. Unions and our allies have fought hard to make that promise a realityโ€”winning protections...

10 April, 2019

BCTGM International President David Durkee was among labor leaders from across the country who gathered in New Orleans last week as part of the AFL-CIOโ€™s Executive Council meeting to map out the path ahead for labor. From trade and public education to equal pay and paid leave to back pay for federal contract workers and bargaining power for all, the Executive Council discussed issues that will define working peopleโ€™s fight for economic justice in 2019...

21 March, 2019

The BCTGM was among a delegation representing the IUF to deliver letters of protest to the Myanamar Embassy in Washington D.C. demanding the release of six hotel workers jailed for union activity in Myanamar. On March 1, the chairman and five other leaders and members of the union of workers at the Hotel Tharabar Gate in Myanamar's Bagan Archeological Zone were convicted of attempting to hold a peaceful protest march after police brutally destroyed the union's...

14 March, 2019

A four-year fight to expand overtime pay to millions of workers may soon be over and about 1.2 million workers will win while 2.8 million will lose. The Department of Labor is scaling back an Obama-era rule that would have doubled the minimum salary for a worker to qualify for overtime pay, according to a proposed rule the agency sent to the Office of the Federal Register for public review. With few exceptions, only workers who earn...

09 March, 2019

James Morgan, BCTGM Local 1 (Chicago) member and former Hostess Brands mixer and oven operator, was invited to testify before the House Committee on Education and Labor Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions on March 7.ย  Specifically,ย  the subject of the hearing that Morgan was asked to address was, "The Cost of Inaction: Why Congress Must Address the Multiemployer Pension Crisis." BCTGM International President David Durkee, Assistant to the International President Harry Kaiser and B&C...

08 March, 2019

Today, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) launched a national education investment campaign called Fund Our Future . Educators, parents, students and their communities understand the importance of public education and public post-secondary education. Their frustration over the lack of sufficient investment has sparked the activism sweeping the nation. The walkouts and funding fights in states such as West Virginia, Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma, and cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, have been inspirational. AFT members...

04 March, 2019

It is vital that Congress address the nationโ€™s growing pension funding crisis. The BCTGM has been a leader in the effort to secure federal legislation to address the countryโ€™s growing pension funding crisis -- which affects virtually every BCTGM member with a collectively bargained pension.ย  Last year, the BCTGM worked extremely hard in support of legislation that strengthens pension plans and avoids retiree benefit reductions through long-term, low-interest loans. While enormous progress was made, Congress did...

06 February, 2019

On April 17, 2018 at Cargill-Turkey in Bursa-Orhangazi, 14 union activists were unfairly dismissed from their jobs on while organizing a union. This is not the first time Cargill management in Turkey has fired workers for attempting to exercise their rights. In 2015, a court ruled that workers were unfairly dismissed for trying to organize a union at the same plant. Turkey's legal system, however, offers an escape route: as an alternative to reinstating workers who...

06 February, 2019

Since 1962, the International Union has helped fulfill the educational dreams of students and union members throughout North America through the BCTGM International Scholarship Program. The 2019 BCTGM International Scholarship Program will award five $2,000 one-time scholarship awards. At least one of the five scholarships is designated for a Canadian union member. One of the five scholarships may be awarded to an active member of BCTGM. Interested individuals should note that the International Union Scholarship Office must...

23 January, 2019

Are You Part of the Solution to Preserve Your Pension? Do you want to be? History of HOOP or the Hands Off Our Pensions Coalition For nearly three years the BCTGM has been engaged in a fight to preserve retiree pensions at Mondelez/Nabisco. In the last year, retirees have been a large part of the effort and have participated by climbing onto buses to attend rallies, shareholder meetings and protests at the homes and offices of corporate...

16 January, 2019

BCTGM International Secretary Treasurer Steve Bertelli, Assistant to the International President Harry Kaiser and Director of Research & Education Matthew Clark were among U.S. postal workers and supporters who rallied outside the Canadian embassy in Washington D.C. today to protest the Canadian Liberal governmentโ€™s decision to legislate Canadian Postal Workers back to work. The rally, led by Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union and the National Association of Letter Carriers, was organized as...

15 January, 2019

On the 20th day of the shutdown of the Federal Government by President Trump and the Congressional Republicans, the BCTGM International officers and staff joined thousands of government workers and labor activists outside AFL-CIO headquarters to demand an end to the lockout of 800,000 civil servants. About a dozen union workers spoke during the rally held outside AFL-CIO headquarters. The workers were employed at numerous government agencies, including the Justice Department, the Federal Aviation Administration, the...

11 January, 2019