Corporate Greed
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
bctgm, bakers union, tobacco union, candy union, food workers, food workers union, grain millers, grain millers union, mondelez, nabisco, snack union,
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"MARKET GAINS PUMP CEO PAY – Corporate chiefs pull in $50 million or more" - USA Today, 3/21/13 "Last year I attended a Thanksgiving dinner at Harris Elementary School…in Decatur (IL), where I learned that 92 percent of the kids are on free or reduced-cost lunches."  —Howard G. Buffett, leading advocate for U.S. and global hunger relief and son of  Warren Buffett, USA Today, 12/2/12 __________________________________________ Corporate CEO’s take home tens of millions of dollars a year and...

30 April, 2013

BCTGM Local 218 member Mike Hummell, a Hostess/Wonder worker for 14 years, helps to tell the story of the Hostess bankruptcy through the eyes of dedicated Kansas bakers. “You've heard the Mainstream Media read you the Hostess PR sheet, now hear the truth from the mouths of the people who had their pension stolen. As the mainstream media distracted America with misinformation about Unions, the Hedge Funds got away with theft. They collected $4.25 an hour...

24 January, 2013

With the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, working families throughout the country have launched a nationwide consumer boycott of American Crystal Sugar products in response to Crystal’s Sugar 14-month lockout of 1,300 BCTGM members.  The AFL-CIO noted that the boycott will be called off if the management of Crystal Sugar, which has denied its workers the opportunity to do their jobs, returns to the bargaining table in good faith and concludes a contract.   This consumer boycott is part of the...

16 October, 2012

(Tula Connell published this Blog post today on AFL-CIO-NOW)  Despite waking up with the flu one morning this week, Bonnie Holter headed out to take part in a 6 a.m. vigil outside the home of a member of the American Crystal Sugar Co. board of directors in East Grand Forks, Minn. Tired and ready to head back to bed after returning home, she still exuded the resolve that, despite having retired from American Crystal Sugar this...

13 September, 2012

Audio available at https://dl.dropbox.com/u/12103381/7-25press%20conference.mp3 (St. Paul, Minn., July 25) – Today AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joined 1300 workers with the Bakery, Confectionery Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), who have been locked out of five processing facilities and other facilities of American Crystal Sugar, in announcing that the AFL-CIO and BCTGM are escalating their campaign for fairness and justice at the company. The lockout, which began on August 1, 2011, came in the...

25 July, 2012

The United States has lost more manufacturing jobs over the previous decade than during the Great Depression. A decade of record trade deficits, the closure of more than 50,000 manufacturing facilities, the loss of nearly six million manufacturing jobs, and chronic trade deficits are troubling signs of the nation’s diminished industrial and innovative capability. The BCTGM recognizes the critical steps the Obama Administration has taken to stabilize the economy by ensuring the survival of the domestic...

19 June, 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

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

  As we begin the new year, the immediate challenges that lie ahead for the BCTGM are as daunting as any this Union has faced in its long and proud history. Many employers in our industries are pursuing a destructive strategy of "my way or the highway" in their relationship with our Union. Tragically, the 1,300 BCTGM members at American Crystal Sugar remain locked out of the jobs they want to return to; jobs they so ably...

08 March, 2012

Twin Cities Business magazine examines the lockout of 1,300 BCTGM members at American Crystal Sugar and the fate of the Farm Bill. "Despite escalating costs for all concerned, American Crystal Sugar is operating without 1,300 unionized factory workers locked out six months ago.  Upping the ante, the union threatens to pull support for the Farm Bill, which in turn could hurt the entire sugar industry." Click here to read/print the entire article....

05 March, 2012

Supporters Deliver Petition Signed by Tens of Thousands to Crystal Sugar Headquarters Fargo, ND—Hundreds of union members, their families, and supporters rallied in Moorhead, MN, today to protest the lockout of some 1,300 workers by American Crystal Sugar Company (ACS). After the rally, a delegation of labor and community leaders delivered a petition signed by more than 33,000 people to the company’s headquarters. The petition calls on CEO David Berg to end the lockout and resume...

22 February, 2012

On February 16th, IUF General Secretary Ron Oswald sent a letter to American Crystal CEO Dave Berg, once again urging him to end the lockout and return to the negotiating table.  Oswald indicated that the IUF's global sugar coodinator reported on the situation at a recent world conference of their agricultural works unions. "Delegates were shocked in general to hear about the lockout you are imposing, but they were horrified to hear that at a shareholders meeting on...

16 February, 2012

On January 18, the first hearing concerning the bankruptcy of Hostess Brands was held in New York, N.Y. before a federal bankruptcy judge. The purpose of the court proceedings was to name members to the Creditors Committee. Bob Bergin, Executive Director of the Bakery and Confectionery Union and Industry International Health & Pension Funds, was placed on the Committee. The Creditors Committee also includes representatives for the Teamsters and other union pension funds, as well as...

19 January, 2012