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Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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Finally, after nearly a quarter of a century, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is being renegotiated. And while NAFTA negotiations have not progressed very far, and it is too early to say whether the effort will bring a New Economic Deal to working people or simply more crony capitalism, there was some fantastic, surprising, excellent news recently. The Canadian negotiating team did something big: They told the U.S. negotiators that U.S. laws that interfere with people’s freedom to negotiate on the job...

21 September, 2017

According to the AFL-CIO, since January, government agencies under the Donald Trump administration have taken steps to hide information from the public—information that was previously posted and information that the public has a right to know. But a recent move is especially personal.  Early this month, the agency responsible for enforcing workplace safety and health—the Occupational Safety and Health Administration—removed the names of fallen workers from its home page and has stopped posting information about workplace deaths on its data...

16 September, 2017

The United Autoworkers has launched BuildBuyUSA campaign. BuildBuyUSA (www.buildbuyusa.org) promotes the value and importance of a strong manufacturing base to our economic future and the key role consumers can play. By spending our dollars on items made domestically, consumers can encourage a resurgence of well-paying manufacturing jobs in the United States. “Consumers have the power to make a difference,” said UAW International President Dennis Williams. “Our BuildBuyUSA campaign will give people the tools they need to make...

15 September, 2017

Calling the boycott of Nabisco/Mondelēz products made in Mexico, “vital to saving good, middle-class American jobs,” BCTGM International President David Durkee urged U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) to call on Nabisco/Mondelēz to support American workers and bring jobs back to the U.S. Durkee, together with BCTGM International Secretary-Treasurer Steve Bertelli and Assistant to the President Harry Kaiser, recently met with the two Congressional leaders in Pelosi’s Capitol Hill...

14 September, 2017

In an area of Pennsylvania where workers at several manufacturing plants belong to the BCTGM, it wasn’t a difficult decision for workers at the Cargill Cocoa facility in Hazelton about who to contact when they wanted to form a union. A worker at the Cargill plant first reached out to BCTGM International Director of Organization John Price in January through the union’s online organizing form. Afraid of management retaliation, the worker, Louis Morales, initially used a...

08 September, 2017

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka made the following statement on the announcement that the Trump administration will terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program:  President Donald Trump’s move to terminate DACA and strip work authorization away from 800,000 productive members of our society is cruel and wrong. Ending DACA will increase the pool of vulnerable workers in our country and embolden employers to retaliate against working men and women who dare to organize on the job...

06 September, 2017

Today, President Donald Trump moved to take away work authorization from nearly 800,000 young immigrants and to terminate DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program put in place to protect immigrants who came to the United States as children. “The labor movement will stand with these brave young workers and fight for legislation so the contributions they make are celebrated, not assaulted,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Immigrants Belong in Unions America’s labor movement is a natural...

05 September, 2017

Today, even as we ride a wave of pro-worker momentum, our economy remains badly out of balance. The CEO-to- worker pay ratio in 2016 was an obscene 347 to 1. Meanwhile, many corporations are shipping jobs overseas and stashing profits offshore to avoid paying taxes. To add insult to injury, corporate-backed politicians continue to try to take away the freedoms unions have won for all of us. Yet inequality is not inevitable. Our economy is nothing more...

01 September, 2017

At the IUF 27th World Congress in Geneva, Switzerland, the BCTGM delegation was among 518 delegates representing 216  labor organizations from 90 countries around the world. BCTGM International President David Durkee spoke on behalf of Resolution #8, "Strengthening the IUF Divisions and Company-Wide Union Networks,” specifically advocating the proposed "IUF Food Processing Division." In his remarks, Durkee reminded the Congress that in the past, every IUF affiliate union has been forced to go up against multimillion dollar...

30 August, 2017

Today, IUF President Hans-Olof Nilsson opened the 27th IUF World Congress in Geneva, Switzerland. BCTGM International delegates to the Congress include BCTGM International President David Durkee, International Secretary-Treasurer Steve Bertelli, Assistant to the International President Harry Kaiser and Local 53 President and BCTGM International General Executive Board member Joyce Alston. The week began with IUF Women, Young Workers and LGBTI Conferences. It was the first time the IUF has held a Young Workers Conference before the opening of...

29 August, 2017

by Celeste Drake, AFL-CIO Trade and Globalization Policy Specialist By now, you’ve probably heard of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). You might have heard that some businesspeople think it’s a great deal, while average working families—and those who stand with us—think it only works if you’re already at the top. If you’ve been reading our blog regularly, then you know NAFTA is being renegotiated. That means working people like us have an opportunity to fix it. And we laid out the...

23 August, 2017

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on his and Thea Lee’s resignation from President Trump’s council on manufacturing: We cannot sit on a council for a President who tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism. President Trump’s remarks today repudiate his forced remarks yesterday about the KKK and neo-Nazis. We must resign on behalf of America’s working people, who reject all notions of legitimacy of these bigoted groups. It’s clear that President Trump’s Manufacturing Council was never an effective...

16 August, 2017

BCTGM International President David Durkee released the following statement in response to the Senate Democrats’ unveiling of the “Better Deal on Trade and Jobs” economic plan. “The BCTGM commends the leadership of Senator Schumer and the Senate Democrats for crafting the “Better Deal” economic blueprint for America’s workers with trade and jobs at its core. The BCTGM has long believed that Congress needs to take bold and comprehensive action to revitalize America’s middle class. Unfair trade agreements...

03 August, 2017

In the early hours of this morning, Senate Republicans held a dramatic vote on their last ditch effort to to undo the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and gut Medicaid. The so-called “Skinny Repeal” would have repealed the ACA’s individual mandate and suspended the employer mandate for nine years, disrupting insurance markets and eliminating access to health care for 16 million Americans. Republican Senators Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK) and John McCain (AZ) joined all 48 Democrats...

28 July, 2017

Twenty years ago, Nike’s name was synonymous with sweatshop abuses. Reports abounded of Indonesian workers earning 14 cents an hour – less than minimum wage – and Vietnamese workers who were hit with shoe parts, sexually assaulted, and forced to run outside until they collapsed. By 1998, iconic Nike CEO Phil Knight had acknowledged that, “the Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime, and arbitrary abuse.” While Nike has trumpeted its corporate social responsibility operation for the past fifteen...

24 July, 2017