History And Purpose Of The BCTGM
he Bakery and Confectionery Workers
International Union of America, one of the pioneers of the North American labor movement,
was organized in 1886. In 1957, the American Bakery and
Confectionery Workers International Union was formed. In
1969, the two organizations united.
T
ment. As it and the Bakery and Confectionery Workers
International Union of America shared many common goals,
both organizations came to realize that these goals could
best be achieved through merger. That merger, creating the
Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers (BCT), took
place in 1978.
The Tobacco Workers International Union was founded in
1895 and was also in the forefront of the early labor move-
The American Federation of Grain Millers (AFGM) also has
roots stemming back to the 1800s. In 1936, the National
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Why We Organize:
“. . . to promote the material, intellectual and general welfare of all workers in the baking,
confectionery, tobacco, grain milling, kindred and other industries by (1) organizational action;
(2) education and enlightenment; (3) continuous striving to improve wage standards, retirement
and similar benefits, and other conditions of employment; to reduce the hours of labor and to
abolish such economic evils as may prevail or persist in these industries; (4) assistance in securing and retaining employment; (5) well-planned and effectively executed activity in the branches
and agencies of government, including activity related to proposed state or federal legislation
affecting these workers and the labor movement; (6) alliance with other labor organizations
within the AFL-CIO or CLC . . .” (Article I, Section 2, BCTGM Constitution)
Welcome to the BCTGM
History And Purpose Of The BCTGM
Council of Grain Processors was formed when a number of
smaller grain milling unions agreed to unite as a national
union under the banner of the American Federation of
Labor, one of the early umbrella organizations for labor
unions. In 1941, the council was renamed the American
Federation of Grain Processors and in 1948 was reorganized
as the AFGM. Shared goals and shared industries led to the
January 1, 1999 merger between the BCT and AFGM, creating the modern BCTGM.
From the beginning, the predecessors of today’s BCTGM
organized workers in the U.S. and Canada. Consequently,
they included the word “International” in their names, as we
do today.
By uniting workers in our industries across North America,
our union provides working men and women with the power
to improve their lives, secure their rights on the job and contribute to a better society.
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Your Rights At Work
nions organize working people to work together
to achieve common goals in the workplace and
society. Through the union, we can negotiate with
management about pay, benefits and conditions where we
work, under the protection of the law. In the United States,
the basic law is the National Labor Relations Act. In Canada,
provincial and federal labour laws protect those rights. This
process of working collectively to improve wages and working conditions is called collective bargaining and leads to an
agreement called a “contract” between the workers and
management.
U
Welcome to the BCTGM