Bakery, Confectionery, and Tobacco Workers International Union. Local 3 (Long Island City, N.Y.)

Bakery Union Local 3 was established in 1955 with the merger of six New York bakers unions--Locals 1, 3, 17, 164, 288, and 579. Beginning in the 1850s, New York played an important role in the evolution of the unionization of the bakers trade. Owing to the large immigrant presence in New York, unions were originally established according to nationality. The result of these nationality-organized unions was a frequent overlapping of jurisdictions within the Greater New York area. With its establishment, Local 3 unified these disparate entities and became a dominant force in the baking industry in New York and an important presence on the national front. In 1958 the Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union was ousted by the AFL-CIO after its President James Cross was indicted for embezzlement. To stem corruption, the AFL-CIO chartered a new union, the American Bakery and Confectionery Workers' International, causing the organized baking industry to fracture at the national level and provoking bitter jurisdictional disputes at the local level. The mending of the destabilizing division within the industry became of primary concern to Local 3's first president, Frank Dutto. He played a vital role in the drive for reunification, which was finally achieved in 1969 after a 12-year struggle.

With the death of Dutto in 1969, the former Secretary-Treasurer Harry Rubenstein took over the presidency and served from 1970 to 1973. These years brought a series of new mergers with Local 3 by other unions that sought greater bargaining strength and unity. In 1973 the most significant merger since 1955 occurred when the powerful Cake Bakers Union Local 51 merged with Local 3. Under the terms of the agreement Rubenstein retired and Harry Lorber, former Secretary-Treasurer of Local 51, became president of Local 3, serving until 1989. Lorber was a member of the international's General Executive Board, chairman of the New York Union Label and Service Trades organization, and chairman of the Baking Industry Labor-Management Apprentice Council. Issues related to automation and corporate manufacturing dominated the 1970s and 1980s. Lorber retired and was succeeded by Secretary-Treasure Ernst Schenkman in December of 1989. Following the sudden death or Schenkman in a car accident one month later, the then Secretary-Treasurer Narciso Martas became the fourth President of Local 3.