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Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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Since June of 2010, I have communicated extensively in writing with your local unions regarding the very serious financial difficulties of your employer, Hostess Brands.  Many of my communications should have been posted on Union bulletin boards at your work location so that you were kept continually informed.  Additionally, we held a meeting in Washington, D.C. on February 25, 2012, for all Hostess production locals. Both I and Secretary-Treasurer/Director of Organization David Durkee, have personally...

11 May, 2012

AFL-CIO Job growth in April rose by 115,000, above the 100,000 needed to keep up with new job entrants. The unemployment rate improved a tad, from 8.2 percent in March to 8.1 percent in April, as did the number of jobless, which declined from 12.7 million in March to 12.5 million in April, according to U.S. Department of Labor data released this morning. Some 14.5 million workers remain unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work. But...

04 May, 2012

AFL-CIO Each day in 2010, 13 workers on average were killed on the job—some 4,690 workers—and an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases, according to the AFL-CIO's annual report, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.” Released today, the report shows the number of those who died in 2010 (the most recent year for which data are available) is up from the 4,551 people who perished in 2009. This trend that has continued since 2004, the first year in a...

02 May, 2012

The numbers are staggering. In 2010, an average of 150 workers died from job injuries and illnesses every day. And nearly 4 million workers were hurt or made ill. America must do better. That’s why working families across the country will come together to mourn the dead and injured and continue the struggle for good jobs that are safe and healthy for all workers. This Saturday, April 28, is Workers’ Memorial Day. On this day, we remember...

27 April, 2012

East Grand Forks, Minn.—Thirty-four representatives of 11 BCTGM local unions met April 14 to discuss issues of importance to union members employed in the sugar industry. Chief among those issues was American Crystal Sugar’s (ACS) lockout of 1,300 BCTGM members in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Iowa nearly nine months ago. Participants in the sugar meeting included representatives from Locals 167G (Grand Forks, N.D.), 267G (Crookston, Minn.), 372G (Hillsboro, N.D.), 283G (Twin Falls, Idaho), 369G (Renville, Minn.), 282G...

18 April, 2012

AFL-CIO Theresa Brown, a United Steelworkers (USW) member at Cooper Tire's Findlay, Ohio, plant says in this election year, “Everybody is in the same fight. It doesn’t matter if you are a union member or not, this is about saving the middle class.” Brown was speaking at a press conference at AFL-CIO headquarters today where plans were announced to activate and energize networks of working families—both online and offline—around political campaigns, legislative issues and holding elected officials...

13 April, 2012

STEELEVILLE, Ill. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Gilster-Mary Lee Corp. for six safety violations – including three willful – after two maintenance employees conducting welding operations sustained serious burns to their upper bodies as the result of an explosion within a dust collector at the company's Steeleville pasta manufacturing plant on Oct. 6, 2011. "Gilster-Mary Lee Corp. has a responsibility to protect workers conducting welding operations from known...

09 April, 2012

Following the lead of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) announced today that its General Executive Board has unanimously voted to endorse President Barack Obama for re-election. In announcing the Board’s decision, BCTGM International Union President Frank Hurt explained, “After assessing the positions of the Republican candidates for President on the issues that matter most to our members and their families, and comparing them with those of...

05 April, 2012

AFL-CIO Who says economic policy has to be wonkish and dry?  Not John Schmitt, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).  He gets right to the point in his new report, “The Minimum Wage Is Too Damn Low.” The minimum wage was last increased—to $7.25 an hour—nearly three years ago.  He writes that the minimum wage is now far below its historical level by all of the most commonly used benchmarks—inflation, average wages...

04 April, 2012

Kalamazoo, MI. – If you drive by a Panera Bread Café on any given morning, you will be treated with the decadent smell of freshly baking bread and sweet goods, thanks to the artful skills of Panera Bread bakers. These bakers work from 10:00 p.m. each night to 6:00 a.m. each morning making sure fresh bread, rolls, cakes and other baked goods are carefully molded and baked in time for the early morning Café opening....

23 March, 2012

Earlier this week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) -- Chairman of the House Budget Committee -- unveiled the GOP budget plan and simply put, it's a disaster for working families and a boondoggle for insurance companies and the wealthiest one percent. Ryan's budget would end Medicare as we know it, eliminate the Affordable Care Act, drastically reduce Medicaid payments to states and increase tax breaks and handouts for wealthiest ONE PERCENT of America. The Ryan budget threatens...

22 March, 2012

CLC OTTAWA – CLC President Ken Georgetti met on March 14th with Francisco J. Barrio-Terrazas, Mexico’s ambassador to Canada. Georgetti and other Canadian union leaders expressed concern about the continuing abuse of trade union rights by the Mexican government. Georgetti was accompanied by Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, John Gordon, President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, and Ken Neumann, Canadian Director of the United Steelworkers. Georgetti provided the ambassador...

22 March, 2012

From the Roquette corn milling facility in Keokuk, Iowa, to American Crystal Sugar in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota and Cooper Tires in Findlay, Ohio, employers are turning to lockouts as a tactic to force union workers to accept major concessions when contract negotiations deadlock. For the BCTGM, the lockout of 1,300 workers at American Crystal Sugar is the most glaring example of the lengths to which employers will go to bust...

20 March, 2012

AFL-CIO-- The House Republican budget, crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R- Wis.) and unveiled today, provides a blueprint of what America would like look under Republican control, “a government of, by and for the 1%,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. House Republicans have dropped all pretenses and laid out their plan to destroy Medicare and Social Security….The Republican plan would not only keep Bush tax cuts for the wealthy from expiring,...

20 March, 2012

[caption id="attachment_2068" align="alignleft" width="243" caption="Photo credit: Lauren Casey, The Statehouse File"][/caption] On February 1, Indiana became the 23rd state—and the first manufacturing state—to institute a “right to work-for-less” law. Across the United States, these laws have depressed wages for union and non-union workers alike, and have contributed to unsafe working conditions. And the attacks on workers and their unions that began in full force in 2011 continue with several other states attempting to follow Indiana’s lead. In Ohio On...

13 March, 2012