BCTGM International Executive Officers Take Office
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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BCTGM International Executive Officers Take Office

NewOfficers2013BCTGM International President Frank Hurt, who served as president of the International Union since October 1, 1992, retired effective January 1, 2013.

To serve Hurt’s unexpired term through the next constitutional convention in 2014, the BCTGM General Executive Board (GEB) unanimously approved Hurt’s nomination of David B. Durkee as International President.  The GEB further approved the nomination of Steve Bertelli as International Secretary-Treasurer.

International President Durkee

David B. Durkee was first elected to fill the open position of International Secretary-Treasurer by the BC&T’s General Executive Board in May 1998. He was elected to his first full term as International Secretary-Treasurer on July 17, 1998, during the union’s 35th Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was re-elected by union delegates at the 2002, 2006 and 2010 Conventions.

In March 1992, Durkee was elected as International Executive Vice President by the union’s General Executive Board. At the 1994 BC&T Constitutional Convention, delegates elected Durkee to serve a full four-year term in that office. He was named as International Director of Organization in 1990.

In 1986, Durkee was appointed a BCTGM International Representative.

Durkee, a long-time resident of Evansville, Ind., has been a BCTGM activist since joining Local 280 (Evansville, Ind.) in 1973 as a baker at Lewis Brothers Bakery. In 1983, Durkee became Local 280′s business agent and financial secretary.

During his tenure with Local 280, Durkee was an AFL-CIO community service counselor and a vice president of the Evansville Labor Temple. He also coached a variety of community sports teams.

While serving the union full time, Durkee earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Indiana in 1981 and his master’s degree in agency counseling from Indiana State University in 1986. Additionally, Durkee is a 1991 graduate of the Harvard Trade Union Program.

In November 2012, Durkee was elected to serve as the Chairman of the Bakery and Confectionery Union and Industry International Health Benefits and Pension Funds.

Durkee has served as an Executive Board Member of the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department, the First Vice President of the AFL-CIO Union Label & Service Trades Department, and as the Chairman of the AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Conference.

Durkee resides in the Washington, D.C. area and also maintains a home in Evansville. He is married and has three children and five grandchildren.

Secretary-Treasurer-elect Bertelli

Steve Bertelli was elected as Third Region Vice President by the GEB on January 1, 2008. He was reelected to serve as an International Vice President at the BCTGM’s 38th Constitutional Convention in 2010.

Bertelli was named a Third Region International Representative in June 1991. He began his union career in 1986 as a shift leader at Mel-O-Cream International and a member of BC&T Local 316 (Decatur, Ill.). He served as the local’s business agent and financial secretary from 1990-1991.