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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 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 The so-called “Skinny Repeal” would have repealed the ACA’s individual mandate and suspended the employer mandate for nine years, disrupting insurance markets and eliminating access to health care for 16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

BCTGM International staff joined hundreds of American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and AFSCME members and Democratic members of Congress outside the U.S. Capitol to rally in opposition to Republicans’ Trumpcare bill and budget proposal which would strip funding from students, teachers, nurses and health workers. The rally was organized by the AFT and led by AFT President Randi Weingarten.  Congressional speakers denounced the proposed budget cuts, which would fall heavily on schools and other vital social services....

20 July, 2017

Approximately 87 percent of workers receive no paid family leave, a problem that BCTGM and other advocates for working families have been pushing elected officials to address for years. The issue finally emerged as a policy focus in last year’s presidential elections. In a July 10 letter to the president, more than 100 congressional Democrats urged President Donald Trump to support legislation providing working families with 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave “that is sustainable, affordable, and inclusive.” They...

18 July, 2017

Freedom means more than making a living. It means the ability to financially support your family and have time to be there for them. Check out AFSCME's new video with President Lee Saunders explaining how corporate interest groups are working tirelessly to chip away at the freedoms that unions have won for everyone. ...

13 July, 2017

The BCTGM is proud to present the full six-minute cut of our short form documentary, “Made in America,” detailing the plight of our members at the iconic Nabisco/Mondelēz bakery in Chicago. This public television segment, produced by Front Page, will air to over 50 million TV homes across the country for one full year and we want our members, their families and all of our supporters to be the first to see it! Click here to...

10 July, 2017

For BCTGM members who have dedicated their working lives to hard and physically demanding jobs, a defined benefit pension plan is key to the foundation for a financially secure and dignified retirement. This is why the BCTGM places the highest priority on preserving and strengthening our members’ pensions. Whether it is the highly-respected multi-employer B&C Pension Fund, covering nearly 110,000 active and retired members and which has paid out more than $12.5 billion in benefits since...

06 July, 2017

Five years ago, President Barack Obama started a program protecting immigrants who came to America as children. Today, thousands of hardworking aspiring citizens have been able to reach their dreams thanks to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA. “We need everyone in our country to be able to live and work without fear,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. 95%: That’s how many of the nearly 1 million DACA enrollees are employed or enrolled...

16 June, 2017

Posted by Celeste Drake on the AFL-CIO Blog The North American Free Trade Agreement is typically called a "trade deal," but in reality it’s not much about trade. Its hundreds of pages of set rules for how the United States, Mexico and Canada can run their economies. Those rules give global corporations strong rights and privileges but don’t contain a single provision to ensure more jobs, better wages, clean air and water, affordable medicines, or any of the...

14 June, 2017

When President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act on June 10, 1963, women made only 60 cents on the dollar for doing the same job as a man. The gap has narrowed in the intervening years, but pay is not yet equal and wages have been held down for women and men alike. We must erase the wage gap by raising pay for all working people. Lift All for Equality The pay gap narrows when...

09 June, 2017

As a candidate, President Donald Trump railed against the outsourcing of American jobs, using Carrier in Indianapolis as his prime example. The company has announced it will fire 632 workers by midsummer at the company’s Indianapolis factory and outsource the work to Mexico. The BCTGM joins with the AFL-CIO and the entire labor movement to demand that the president use renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement to level the playing field for American...

24 May, 2017

Today at 3 p.m. EST, 40,000 CWA workers at AT&T went on strike in 36 states and Washington D.C. Workers have been at the bargaining table for months fighting for good jobs against a company dead set on lining its pockets at the expense of the workers who make them billions. This will be the biggest strike in the United States since 40,000 Verizon workers walked out last year, and may be the biggest strike of...

19 May, 2017

While BCTGM members, Nabisco workers and scores of other union members and supporters protested the corporate greed and destructive business model of Nabisco/Mondelēz outside the company’s annual shareholder meeting on May 17 in Lincolnshire, Ill., inside the meeting Mondelēz shareholders, board members and corporate officers were repeatedly questioned about the company’s destructive business practices around the world. BCTGM Midwest Region International Vice President Jethro Head introduced an AFL-CIO shareholder proposal that urges the company to form...

19 May, 2017