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Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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A federal judge yesterday granted an injunction ordering the Kellogg Company to end its lockout of 226  BCTGM Local 252G members—at its Memphis cereal plant and reinstate them to their jobs within five days. Judge Samuel H. Mays, of the Western District of Tennessee, also ordered Kellogg to bargain with the union in good faith; offer reinstatement to every worker to their former or equivalent positions; re-establish the same terms and conditions of employment prior to the...

31 July, 2014

Heinen’s Fine Foods is a Cleveland, Ohio based family-owned gourmet grocery store that was established in 1929 by Joe Heinen who opened a small butcher shop on the east side of the city, aiming to establish himself as the city’s purveyor of quality meats.   After his initial success, Heinen added homemade peanut butter, pickles and freshly baked donuts. By 1933, business had grown enough to include a line of produce and canned goods.   Today, the family-owned store...

02 June, 2014

“U.S. Government Charges Kellogg with Serious Violations of Federal Law”  – BCTGM News Release, March 27, 2014 “Federal Government Seeks Immediate Court Action to End Illegal Memphis Lockout” – BCTGM News Release, April 5, 2014 What a difference a year can make! At this time last year, the labor movement was confronting one of its greatest challenges since the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act, the “Workers’ Bill of Rights”, nearly 80 years earlier.  The National Labor Relations Board...

15 May, 2014

Today (April 28th), the unions of the AFL-CIO observe Workers Memorial Day to remember those who have suffered and died on the job and to renew our efforts for safe workplaces. This year, the struggle continues to create good jobs in this country that are safe and healthy and to ensure the freedom of workers to form unions and, through their unions, to speak out and bargain for respect and a better future. It is time...

28 April, 2014

BCTGM International President David Durkee and International Secretary Treasurer Steve Bertelli, together with locked out Local 252G Kellogg workers and AFL-CIO representatives, attended the  Kellogg Company shareholder meeting today in Battle Creek, Mich. The AFL-CIO presented Proposal 5 to the shareholders. The proposal, put forward by Brandon Rees of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, would require the Kellogg Company to submit a "human rights risk assessment". President Durkee delivered a statement to the shareholders in support of...

25 April, 2014

BCTGM members from five states and Canada descended upon  the Kellogg Company annual shareholders meeting Battle Creek, Mich. to protest the company's illegal lockout of more than 220 Local 252G Memphis, Tenn. cereal workers. Hundreds of union members, labor leaders, and community activists joined the BCTGM outside the W.K. Kellogg Auditorium for a rally.  Locked out 252G members, who traveled to Battle Creek to take place in the shareholders meeting and planned events, were introduced by...

25 April, 2014

I remained hopeful that this situation would resolve soon for many days, but as these days turned to weeks, and these weeks to months, I am starting to wonder why nobody is listening to my plea. It hurts to be ignored. —Kara Butterfield, 15, daughter of Jeff Butterfield, Local 252G locked out Kellogg worker This morning outside the W.K. Kellogg Foundation headquarters in Battle Creek, Mich., BCTGM Local 252G members illegally locked out by Kellogg in Memphis,...

24 April, 2014

According to the 2014 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch, released April 15, it’s 331 times better to be a CEO than an average worker. All you need to do is ask BCTGM Local 252G President Kevin Bradshaw, who along with more than 220 other union workers, has been locked out of the Kellogg cereal plant in Memphis, Tenn. since last October. And while the locked union members have not received a paycheck since the illegal lockout began on October 22,...

21 April, 2014

JESSE NEWMAN for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL April 9, 2014 After an explosion at an Imperial Sugar Co. factory in Georgia killed 14 workers and injured dozens in 2008, U.S. officials promised rules for handling the well-known workplace hazard that caused it: combustible dust. Six years later, there has been little change. Now, as investigators continue to explore the possibility that dust could have caused the collapse of a feed mill in Omaha, Neb., this past January, the...

09 April, 2014

Kensington, MD, April 5, 2014 – In yet another major development regarding the Kellogg Company’s illegal lockout of its Memphis, Tenn. workforce, the five-member National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) headquartered in Washington, D.C. unanimously authorized on April 4th its lawyers to seek an immediate injunction in U.S. Federal Court against the company for its part in the long-running lockout. Workers at the facility are represented by Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 252G. “This...

05 April, 2014

Kensington, MD, March 27, 2014 – Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) issued the following statement in response to the March 27 complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the Kellogg Company: Earlier today, the U.S. government charged the Kellogg Company with multiple and serious violations of federal law stemming from its October 22, 2013 lockout of more than 220 workers at the company’s Memphis cereal production facility. In filing a Complaint against Kellogg...

27 March, 2014

A series of videos were launched today to tell the story of the actions Kellogg is taking against its workers around the globe. While the CEO of The Kellogg Company, John Bryant, gets a pay raise of $8 million and investors get rich with increasing dividend payments and share buybacks, thousands of Kellogg employees and the communities they live in are left devastated and angry.  And while the $14 billion global snack food giant prides itself...

18 March, 2014

“The opposition from employers and their strong political representatives seems sharp and constant, and in the face of these, it is our declared purpose to maintain our unity and solidarity.”   – From the Declaration of Principles, BCTGM Constitution   Looking at these words from the BCTGM’s Declaration of Principles, it is as if those leaders who wrote our Constitution knew exactly what our Union has been up against for the past four years and how we have...

13 March, 2014

Five powerful and highly-respected United States Senators have asked the Kellogg Company to “act swiftly to find a fair agreement” and end its nearly five-month lockout of more than 220 workers at its Memphis, Tenn. cereal production facility. In a March 6 letter to Kellogg CEO John Bryant, Senators Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Robert Casey, Jr. (Pa.), Cory Booker (N.J.), Robert Menendez (N.J.) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.), reflected on the dedication of Kellogg workers. “Many of these hardworking...

07 March, 2014

For Immediate Release: March 5, 2014 The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has joined the growing number of national and international organizations urging the Kellogg Company to end its nearly five-month old lockout of more than 220 workers at its Memphis, Tenn. cereal plant. In a February 27 letter to Kellogg CEO John Bryant, CBC Chair Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio), writes: “Many of the affected workers are second and third generation employees from predominately minority communities, averaging more...

05 March, 2014