Organizing
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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BCTGM Director of Organization John Price joined with officers and organizers from BCTGM Local Union 22 (Minneapolis) in a series of meetings with employees of Franklin Street Bakery who are in the midst of an organizing drive to join the BCTGM. The campaign, which began in 2016, has received tremendous support from the Minneapolis/St. Paul community including the Minnesota State AFL-CIO, local community groups, town council members, and even the NFL Players Association. The owners of Franklin...

19 January, 2017

For years, employees at the Franklin Street Bakery in Minneapolis have reported poverty wages, lack of time off for illness and family, unaffordable health coverage, little opportunity for advancement, and favoritism. Workers are now exercising their legal right to form a union because they believe speaking up together is the only way bakery management will treat them with respect and pay living wages. In response, management has began an anti-union campaign against workers filled with threats,...

28 November, 2016

When workers at the Minneapolis-based Franklin Street Bakery had enough of management's unfair treatment, they reached out to BCTGM Local 22 for help in forming a union. But as soon as the company got word that workers were trying to unionize, they began harassing, threatening and intimidating them. Since its organizing drive began this spring, Local 22 has filed โ€œat least a dozenโ€ charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) againstย Franklin Street Bakery for violatingย workersโ€™...

29 August, 2016

In the beginning, workers were not afraid. On the morning of January 11, sick of unsafe working conditions and unfair pay, dozens of workers at Portland Specialty Baking marched into the company presidentโ€™s office and asked for voluntary union recognition. [caption id="attachment_5711" align="alignright" width="300"] Current and former workers at Portland Specialty Baking, together with attorneys and supporters, announced a class action wage theft lawsuit on Aug. 8.[/caption] It was early 2015 that BCTGM Local 114 (Portland, Ore), with...

03 August, 2016

March 23/Erin Johansson If an entire industry existed with the sole purpose of interfering with a federally protected right, isnโ€™t it common sense that our federal government should want to keep tabs on it? Thankfully, the Obama administration just released a rule that will step up federal monitoring of employers who hire unionbusting consultants. Unionbusters profit from telling companies how to stop working people from coming together in union to improve their workplaces. When faced with an...

24 March, 2016

Workers at Lifeway Foods Inc. facilities in Chicago voted to join BCTGM Local 1 (Chicago) a year and a half ago but remain without a union contract as the company refuses to negotiate with the union. And despite a 2015 order by theย the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the company will notย bargain in good faith. Taking matters into their own hands, Local 1, with assistance from the International Union, has launched a ย campaign to bring this...

14 March, 2016

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled thatย Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)ย is guilty of violating federal labor laws. The NLRB adopted the findings and conclusions of Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Melissa M. Olivero. In a thirty-three page Decision, Judge Olivero wrote, โ€œADM has committed numerous violations of Section 8(a)(1) of the Act by interrogating and threatening its employees. During their 2015 effort to become members of BCTGM Local 103G, workers at ADM's Bio-products facility in Decatur, Ill....

03 March, 2016

More than three years have passedย since they voted to form a union andย Panera workers in Michigan are still waiting. The franchisee that owns the Panera Bread stores in the region continues to refuse to recognize the BCTGM as the official collective bargaining representative of the bakers and refuses to meet to bargain a first contract.ย  The NLRB found that Panera broke the law by refusing to bargain, and ordered the company to bargain with the...

06 November, 2015

If weโ€™re going to raise wages for all working people and get our communities thriving again, we need to protect and strengthen the rights of working folks to speak up together at our workplaces. Check out this excellent video from Robert Reich about why unions are the key to building a strong middle class!    ...

15 September, 2015

The following article featuring the current organizing drive ย of BCTGM Local 232 in Phoenix, Arizona was published online by Erik De La Garza ย on Thursday, September 10.ย  PHOENIX (CN) - Multibillion-dollar Shamrock Foods, the largest dairy in the Southwest, threatens, spies on and fires employees for supporting their union, the National Labor Relations Board claims in court. NLRB Regional Director Cornele A. Overstreet sued Shamrock Foods Co. on Tuesday in Federal Court. Shamrock Foods is ranked 185...

14 September, 2015

A new Gallup poll released this week shows that public approval of unions has risen by five percentage points over the past year, reaching 58% positive, the highest point since a 59% approval rating in 2008 and significantly higher than the all-time low of 48% approval recorded in 2009....

28 August, 2015

Pictured here after the final votes were counted is (from left, front row) Intl. Rep. David Woods, Randy Williams, George Key, Tony Sanders, L. 42 Bus. Agt. Zach Townsend and L. 149 Pres./GEB member Letitia Malone, (from left, back row) Vanessa Corbitt, Allan Wright, Joseph Dickens and Phyllis Dickens. It was the unwavering strength and courage of 80 workers at a peanut shelling plant in Alabama that prevailed in their fight for dignity and respect through...

29 June, 2015

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has scheduled a Federal Hearing to deliberate the Federal Complaint against Archer Daniel Midland (ADM) for violating Federal Labor Laws by interrogating, threatening and intimidating workers during their efforts to join a union. Sixty-two workers at the ADM Bio-Product Maintenance plant in Decatur, Ill. voted to join BCTGM Local 103G earlier this year in a secret ballot election conducted by NLRB Region 25. This was the second attempt by the ADM...

13 May, 2015

The 31 workers at the Patty King International manufacturing plant are proud new members of BCTGM Local 264 (Toronto). The workers at the Concord, Ontario plant produce Jamaican Patties, a Jamaican ethnic food. The production workers reached out to Canadian International Vice President Ron Piercey and the Local 264 Business Agent Bill Hegedus and Business Agent Michael Smith. The workers are predominately Sri Lankan and Indian. Communication was made easy by one of the workers who translated...

17 April, 2015

โ€œSenator Elizabeth Warren recently gave a speech where she made her case for electing women Democrats to Congress saying, โ€˜If you donโ€™t have a seat at the table, youโ€™re probably on the menu.โ€™ And this is something Iโ€™ve started telling workers in organizing campaigns.โ€ โ€” John Price, BCTGM Internationalย Director of Organization [caption id="attachment_4789" align="alignright" width="288" caption="Workers at the Penford Foods plant in Seattle became fed up with the companyโ€™s elimination of benefits and contacted the BCTGM. They...

23 January, 2015