The Emergency We Now Face is Economic: Echoes of 1968 in 2016

KENSINGTON, Md., Feb. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- "The emergency we now face is economic, and it is a desperate and worsening situation…In our society it is murder, psychologically, to deprive a man of a job or an income. You are in substance saying to that man that he has no right to exist…The problem is international in scope. And it is getting worse, as the gap between the poor and the "affluent society" increases." Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1968

In Chicago, the emergency is very real, with 600 jobs held by a predominately African-American and Latino workforce at risk at the Mondelēz Nabisco Bakery. The cookie and snacks corporation has chosen to export jobs to its operations in Salinas, Mexico after asking Chicago Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 300 members for total compensation cuts ranging from $24-29 dollars per hour, equaling $46 million per year in perpetuity. Ultimately, Mondelēz Nabisco opted not to invest in America or its historic Southside Chicago Bakery. The job losses will create a profound economic ruin and dire social impact to the local community and the city of Chicago. The BCTGM International Union is working alongside the community to protect middle-class jobs from leaving Chicago.

Please visit www.FightForAmericanJobs.org to view impactful videos illustrating the hardships these job losses at the Southside Chicago plant would create on an already-struggling community. Evoking Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 speech about the struggle between rich and poor, this video captures the same battle workers in Chicago – and around the country – are fighting today, nearly 50 years later.

For more information, please visit www.BCTGM.org and www.FightForAmericanJobs.org.

Contacts:
Ron Baker, BCTGM Strategic Campaign Coordinator 
(703) 508-2637
[email protected]

Jennifer Sanders, Perry Street Communications
(214) 965-9955
[email protected]

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mfWCaIfoAs&feature=youtu.be

SOURCE Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union

Related Links

http://www.BCTGM.org