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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 Local 167G GRAND FORKS, N.D. – An overwhelming majority of American Crystal Sugar Company’s locked out union workers voted via secret ballot to reject the company’s latest contract proposal. “Today our members sent a loud and clear message to American Crystal Executives,” said BCTGM Local 167G President John Riskey. “We want to work, but we will not accept a contract that puts our jobs and the entire community at risk.”   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

 (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 “Justice at Hershey’s” and “Exploitation Is Wrong in Any Language,” and chanted, “Hey Hershey’s, can’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. “We stand in solidarity with those protesting Wall Street’s greed. The consequences of this insidious wave of corporate greed – 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

In response to a fire last night in the Drayton, ND Crystal Sugar facility and one this morning in East Grand Forks, MN, BCTGM Local 167G President John Riskey issued the following statement: “When you put poorly trained replacement workers into these facilities, preventable accidents can and will happen. That is exactly what happened last night in Drayton and in East Grand Forks this morning. Yesterday, Vice President Brian Ingulsrud told the media there were no concerns...

09 September, 2011

“For the first time in four weeks, representatives from American Crystal Sugar Company finally agreed to meet with BCTGM union negotiators. We came to the table in good faith with proposals that addressed many of the company’s concerns including changes to health coverage and expanding upon the company’s substance abuse policy. Unfortunately, the company ignored our ideas and stubbornly offered the same proposal that 96% of our membership rejected. While the company has refused to schedule another meeting,...

24 August, 2011

By John Riskey, INFORUM We want to keep working. It’s that simple. As the community already knows, 1,300 Red River Valley residents employed by American Crystal Sugar Co. have been forced off the job against our will. We are your neighbors. We go to church with you. We spend money at local businesses. We raise our families here because the Red River Valley is a great place to live and work. On Tuesday, American Crystal Sugar...

05 August, 2011

EAST GRAND FORKS - After voting overwhelmingly to reject the final offer from American Crystal Sugar, some1,300 workers in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa have been locked out. This morning, BCTGM Local 167G  President John Riskey read a statement at all affected facilities. "Today, American Crystal Sugar workers...

01 August, 2011

On June 21, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposed important new rules to improve and modernize the NLRB election process.  The proposed rule issued by the NLRB ensures workers have a basic right we hold dear in this country: the right to vote. By eliminating voting delays and modernizing an outdated system, the rule removes unfair obstacles so that workers can vote on whether to form a union if they want to. It’s a step...

25 June, 2011

BCTGM Local 9 (Seattle) has organized the bakers and cake decorators at three Kroger in-store bakeries in Kirkland and Bellevue, Washington. The successful campaigns were lead by Local 9 officers, according to Region 6 International Vice President Randy Roark.  The BCTGM welcomes the new Kroger bakers into our BCTGM union family!...

08 May, 2011

BCTGM Local 24 (San Francisco) has organized the journeymen bakers, the apprentice bakers, the journeymen cake decorators, the apprentice cake decorators, and the donut fryers at three Safeway in-store bakeries in Sunnyvale, Menlo Park and Santa Cruz, Calif.  Additionally, Local 24 has organized the mechanics, who service the delivery trucks at Roma Bakery in San Jose, Calif. The campaigns were lead by Local 24 Financial Secretary Joe Biringer and Business Agents Oscar Hernandez and Humberto Gomez, according...

08 March, 2011

BCTGM Local 125 (Oakland, Calif.) organizing efforts have been paying off!  Recently the local organized Safeway’s in-store bakery (#2712) located at 11050 Bollinger Canyon Road in San Romon.  Local 125 Financial Secretary Donna Scarano credits Recording Secretary David Cheong with the successful campaign. Scarano also reports that Local 125 has organized the maintenance department at Dobake Bakeries located at 810 81st Avenue, in Oakland.  Local 125 already represents the bakery’s production workers, who make bread, buns...

08 February, 2011

In the June 2010 issue of the BCTGM Report, it was reported that BCTGM Local 114 (Portland, Ore.) had won an organizing election to represent 13 sanitation workers employed at the BCTGM- represented captive Safeway Bakery in Portland. According to Region 6 Vice President Randy Roark, since that victory, Local 114 has continued to “clean up” on the organizing front with two additional organizing successes with wholesale bakery sanitation bargaining units.  Local 114 has organized the sanitation...

08 January, 2011

Since Tasty Baking Company in Philadelphia was founded in 1914, workers have been without a union. That all changed in August when Tasty Baking Co.'s bakers, warehouse workers, food-safety technicians, auto mechanics, and vending drivers voted to become members of BCTGM Local 492 (Philadelphia). The company closed its old non-union North Philadelphia bakery and transferred production to a newly-built “green” facility located in the Philadelphia Naval Yard. According to the company, they took the abandoned industrial...

08 October, 2010