Local 203T (Richmond, Va.) adopted 59 families in the Richmond tri-cities area for the holiday season. Through generous donations to the localโs holiday toy drive, Local 203T members helped put smiles on the faces of 185 children and fill their homes with holiday cheer....
CHICAGO โ The U.S. Department of Labor has reached an agreement with Haasbach LLC in Mount Carroll, resolving 25 citations issued by the departmentโs Occupational Safety and Health Administration and child labor civil money penalties assessed by its Wage and Hour Division. The resolution follows the deaths of Wyatt Whitebread, 14, and Alex Pacas, 19, at the companyโs Mt. Carroll grain bin facility in July 2010. A 20-year-old worker also was seriously injured in the...
UPDATE: On Dec. 5, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton follows up on his promise during the American Crystal Sugar stakeholders meeting, to help facilitate contract negotiations and to remain present until a successful conclusion is reached. Click here to read the full letter. On Dec. 4 in Moorhead, Minn., Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton met with an American Crystal Sugar Company executive and listened to locked out workers stories during a Saturday visit to Moorhead. More than 300 people...
Delight your friends and loved ones with holiday treats made by hard-working BCTGM members! Listed here is a sampling of the BCTGM-contracted companies that produce seasonal specialtiesโฆ. Annabelle Candy Company Holiday seasonal specialties and bag candy including union-made candies like Rocky Road, Abba Zaba, Look, Big Hunk and U-No. BCTGM Local 125 (San Leandro, Calif.) Brown & Haley Holiday gift boxes, baskets, tins and packages filled with the companyโs renowned Almond Roca, Cashew Roca, Mocha Roca, Sugar Free Almond Roca...
The already strained relationship between management of American Crystal Sugar Company (ACSC) and its 1,300 locked out workers was dealt another serious blow when recordings of anti-worker statements by ACSC President and CEO Dave Berg were made public this week. In a meeting of company shareholders on November 7 in Grafton, N.D., Berg likened the workers to a 21-pound cancerous tumor. According to an audio recording of the meeting, Berg told the story of a sick...
Locked out BCTGM Local 167G members from Moorhead, Minn. spoke toย more than 100 people gathered at the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 9 in Minneapolis about the lockout of 1,300 union members by American Crystal Sugar. BCTGM members Kevin Solum and Becki Jacobson discussed the current situation faced by the workers, answered questions and solicited support and resources for the lockout. Teams of American Crystal workers from each location of the lockout are traveling throughout...
AFL-CIO This eveningโs announcement that the Super Committee on the federal deficit was unable to reach an agreement shows that the Republicans on the committee โhave once again shown that if they canโt get their way, they take their marbles and go home,โ says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. โGetting their wayโ he says, means making the Bush tax cuts for the wealthyย permanent, letting the top 1 percent off the hook on deficit reduction. Getting their way means driving...
By TRAVIS LOLLER, Associated Press Each year, people are killed and maimed by explosions of finely powdered wood, metal or chemicals at factories around the country. Safety experts have studied the threat posed by dust at industrial sites for nearly a decade, yet tighter regulations are still years away. Among the reasons for the delay are a cumbersome rulemaking process and disagreement among federal agencies about how to best tackle the problem. Meanwhile, workers continue to die. Combustible...
On November 8, Ohio voters resoundingly overturned the anti-worker agenda pushed by Governor John Kasich (R) and the right-wing state legislature.ย An extraordinary grassroots effort led by the labor movement resulted in the defeat of Issue 2/Senate Bill 5 by a remarkable 61-39 margin. Senate Bill 5, rammed through the legislature earlier in the year, would have eliminated the collective bargaining rights of some 350,000 public employees including teachers, nurses, police officers and fire fighters, jeopardized...
BCTGM Region 6 International Vice President Randy Roark reports that local unions on the West Coast are receiving phone calls from unorganized workers at a record pace. ย Non-union workers, normally shy and fearful about getting involved in an organizing campaign, are reaching out to unions as they watch the poor getting poorer, the middle class disappearing and the rich getting richer.ย BCTGM Secretary-Treasurer and Director of Organization David B. Durkee notes, "It is a harsh...
For political newcomers, hereโs what you need to know: the good guys won. Not only did we win. We won big. We won in friendly territory and difficult terrain. And the credit for our victories belongs firmly to the working men and women - union and non-union alike - who were fighting for their rights, their jobs, their values, and their future. Ohio When John Kasich was sworn in as Ohioโs Governor at the beginning of this year,...
AFL-CIO Ohio voters today resoundingly overturned the anti-worker agenda pushed by Gov. John Kasich (R), Republican state lawmakers and outside interest groups, which took away the right of public employees to collectively bargain for a middle-class life. Moments ago, the vote was called: Buckeye State voters said โNoโ to Issue 2. The Associated Press reports it was defeated by a 63 percent to 37 percent margin. The โNoโ vote on Issue 2 repeals Kasichโs S.B. 5...
AFL-CIO While Verizon workers toil without a contract, a report issued jointly today by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that itโs not just its workers the company is short-changing; itโs all of the American people. For the last three years, Verizon has paid less than zero taxes. Thatโs rightโthrough the use of corporate loopholes, Verizon has actually โmadeโ money through its tax filings, according to the report, โCorporate...
OSHA fined All-Feed Processing & Packaging Inc. $758,450 and cited the company for 23 safety and health violations at its pet food production and packaging facility in Galva, Ill. OSHA cited All-Feed for willful violations of OSHA's air contaminant, respiratory protection and hearing conservation standards. The company's failure to provide appropriate fire and explosion protection in locations where concentrations of combustible dust existed was cited under OSHA's "general duty" clause, which requires employers to provide...
Bakers at the new Safeway Retail Bakeries in Burlingame and Los Gatos, California are now members ofย BCTGM Local 24 (San Francisco).ย According to Local 24 Financial Secretary Joe Biringer, the local union contacted the bakers after the new retail outlets opened. ย The local organized the two bakeries, consisting of bakery managers, journeyman bakers, apprentice bakers, cake decorators, apprentice cake decorators, and donut fryers.ย Local 24 requested and were granted voluntary recognition by Safeway. Financial Secretary Biringer...