by James Parks, Aug 2, 2010
Delegates to the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) convention over the weekend unanimously re-elected the union’s top three officers: President Frank Hurt, Secretary-Treasurer David Durkee and Executive Vice President Joseph Thibodeau.
In his keynote address to the convention, Hurt, who has led BCTGM since 1992, praised union members’ solidarity as the key to winning good contracts in this faltering economy:
Our successes at the bargaining table over the last four years were the result of tireless hard work and preparation. Employers have come to respect the proud unity and solidarity of the BCTGM. Employers know that if they take us on they had better be in for the long haul—because we are!
Throughout the convention, which ends tomorrow, delegates discussed and approved resolutions to address the challenges facing the union movement, including anti-worker governments, globalization, toothless labor laws and more.
Other convention speakers included AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka; AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker; Ron Oswald, general secretary of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF); U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.); and Allison Beck, deputy director of the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service (FMCS).
The BCTGM represents workers in the United States and Canada, who produce such well-known brands as Oreo and Chips Ahoy! cookies, Saltine crackers, Kellogg’s and General Mills cereals, Marlboro cigarettes, See’s Candies and Hershey’s chocolate.
