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Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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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...

23 November, 2011

AFL-CIO This eveningโ€™s announcement that the Super Committee on the federal deficit was unable to reach an agreement shows that the Republicans on the committee โ€œhave once again shown that if they canโ€™t get their way, they take their marbles and go home,โ€ says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. โ€œGetting 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...

21 November, 2011

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...

17 November, 2011

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...

16 November, 2011

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...

16 November, 2011

For political newcomers, hereโ€™s 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 Ohioโ€™s Governor at the beginning of this year,...

09 November, 2011

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 โ€œNoโ€ to Issue 2. The Associated Press reports it was defeated by a 63 percent to 37 percent margin. The โ€œNoโ€ vote on Issue 2 repeals Kasichโ€™s S.B. 5...

09 November, 2011

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 itโ€™s not just its workers the company is short-changing; itโ€™s all of the American people. For the last three years, Verizon has paid less than zero taxes. Thatโ€™s rightโ€”through the use of corporate loopholes, Verizon has actually โ€œmadeโ€ money through its tax filings, according to the report, โ€œCorporate...

08 November, 2011

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...

02 November, 2011

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...

01 November, 2011

BCTGM Local 167G GRAND FORKS, N.D. โ€“ An overwhelming majority of American Crystal Sugar Companyโ€™s locked out union workers voted via secret ballot to reject the companyโ€™s latest contract proposal. โ€œToday our members sent a loud and clear message to American Crystal Executives,โ€ said BCTGM Local 167G President John Riskey. โ€œWe want to work, but we will not accept a contract that puts our jobs and the entire community at risk.โ€ย  ย 92% of union members voted and 90%...

01 November, 2011

OSHA fined Bridgford Foods Corp. $422,600 and cited the company for 27 safety and health violations at its food manufacturing facility in Dallas. The violations include failing to establish and maintain a hearing conservation program for workers exposed to noise hazards beyond the permissible exposure limit, and failing to establish a lockout/tagout program for energy sources to protect workers from machines starting up unexpectedly. OSHA has placed Bridgford in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP),...

28 October, 2011

๏ปฟ (Photo: The Rick Smith Show, PA) On September 23, 400 student guest workers from around the world were joined by 1,000 unemployed American workers, union members, activists and labor leaders in a march and rally outside the Hershey Chocolate Company packing plant in Pennsylvania. The students marched up Chocolate Avenue leading a massive group of 1,000 supporters. The crowd bore signs reading โ€œJustice at Hersheyโ€™sโ€ and โ€œExploitation Is Wrong in Any Language,โ€ and chanted, โ€œHey Hersheyโ€™s, canโ€™t...

26 October, 2011

Today, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) announced their official endorsement of the Occupy Wall Street movement for economic and political justice. โ€œWe stand in solidarity with those protesting Wall Streetโ€™s greed. The consequences of this insidious wave of corporate greed โ€“ hundreds of communities pummeled; countless families devastated; the standard of living for workers sabotaged and our manufacturing capability strangled. These protests are sending a clear message to Wall Street...

06 October, 2011

Reposted from CHCH - Click here to see the video Canada's largest, and newest commercial bakery opened officially in Hamilton Wednesday. The $100 million Canada Bread plant covers nearly 400,000 square feet on Nebo Road. The plant is a division of Maple Leaf Foods, and will produce a variety of products - mostly from the Dempster's line - including breads, buns, english muffins, and tortillas. The new plant is the anchor tenant in the recently-opened Red Hill...

28 September, 2011