The Graphic Communications International
Union and the Teamsters officially joined forces on January 1, 2005 after
the GCIU membership ratified the merger by a clear majority in late 2004.
Now more than 60,000 GCIU members in the United States form the new Graphic
Communications Conference (GCC).
The conference represents workers in all craft and
skill areas in the printing and publishing industry. Every day, GCC members
help print, produce and design numerous publications, including the
New
York Times,
Chicago Sun-Times,
San Francisco Chronicle,
Elle and
Cosmopolitan magazines, Harper Collins and Penguin
books, brochures for Chevrolet and catalogs for L.L. Bean.
Members work in desktop publishing and electronic color prepress. They
operate web and sheetfed, offset, letterpress, rotogravure, silkscreen and other specialty
presses. They handle binding, finishing and shipping of finished products.
They produce inks, paper and packaging materials made of paper, plastic,
cardboard and metal. Graphic Communications Conference members are also
journalists, graphic artists, typesetters, sales people and support staff. GCC members have received wide recognition for their high levels of skill
and productivity in their workplaces.
The merger between the two powerful unions enables the now-stronger
Teamsters Union to represent even more workers in printing and related
industries. For example, the GCC and the Teamsters Newspaper Division
represent different but complimentary types of hardworking employees at many
major newspapers, such as the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Boston Globe,
Boston Herald, Columbus Dispatch and the Star-Ledger in
New Jersey.