The Golgi apparatus functions in transport, processing and sorting of proteins to their appropriate cellular destinations. Recent findings have indicated additional roles for the Golgi apparatus in various cellular processes such as cell polarisation, stress responses, metabolism, autophagy and apoptosis. In vertebrates, the Golgi apparatus is composed of a series of stacked cisternae linked together to form a contiguous ribbon that localizes to the perinuclear region of the cell. A family of Golgi localized, large coiled-coil membrane tethers, known as golgins, regulate membrane dynamics and maintain Golgi ribbon integrity by recruiting a diverse set of effector molecules. A coherent view is still lacking as to how the golgins orchestrate this process. We have established a HeLa cell clone (B6) stably expressing one of the trans-Golgi network membrane tethers, GCC88. We utilized super resolution microscope OMX Blaze and 3D scanning transmission electron microscopic (STEM) tomography to visualize the Golgi structure in B6 cells. We observed that a modest overexpression of GCC88 in B6 cells results in disruption of the Golgi ribbon and dispersal of intact Golgi mini stacks throughout the cytoplasm. B6 cells showed increase in the number of autophagosomes indicating activation of autophagy. Proteomic studies performed to identify GCC88 binding partners suggest involvement of an actin-regulator in Golgi ribbon maintenance. Thus, a combination of light microscopy and 3D EM tomography provided a powerful tool to understand the structure-functional relationships of the Golgi apparatus to other cellular processes in vertebrate cells.