“BCTGM...CARING FOR YOU LIKE ONLY A UNION CAN!”

Workers at the Rich's plant in Murfreesboro, Tenn. know the sad truth faced by workers trying to organize. The struggles working people face are not exceptions to the rule—when a majority of workers say they want a union, employers routinely threaten their right to make their own free choice with a campaign of coercion, harassment and firings.

Such anti-union behavior by Rich's against the 275 workers who want to become members of the BCTGM has prompted several National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaints against the company including the unlawful termination of one employee.

Other issues:

Pension: Several years ago Rich's eliminated the workers pension plan and replaced it with a 401(k) plan. Most workers have between 15 to 25 years of service but no real pension to rely on upon retiring.

Other BCTGM-contracted Rich's plants have the B&C Pension Fund, which guarantees pension payments throughout retirement.

Medical Benefits: Rich's workers in Murfreesboro receive increases in their co-payments every year.

BCTGM-contracted plants have either no mandatory contributions and/or much lower co-pays.

Subcontracting: Company continues to eliminate Murfreesboro jobs by subcontracting to AmeriCold Logistics.

The company received a tax abatement to build a 300,000-square foot warehouse attached to the main bakery. Workers must fill out new applications to work in this warehouse and will make significantly less money and receive less benefits.

Less than two years ago, there were 350 full-time jobs in the Rich's unit. Presently, there are 275.

Organizing Today's Workers

• Ninety-one percent of employers, when faced with employees who want to join together in a union, force employees to attend closed-door meetings to hear anti-union propaganda; 80 percent require immediate supervisors to attend training sessions on how to attack unions; and 79 percent have supervisors deliver anti-union messages to workers they oversee.
  
  
• Eighty percent hire outside consultants to run anti-union campaigns, often based on mass psychology and distorting the law.
  
  
• Half of employers threaten to shut down if employees join together in a union.
  
  

• In 31 percent of organizing campaigns, employers illegally fire workers just because they want to form a union.

For information on your rights as a worker, visit Your Rights section of this special website.