A Rank-and-File Reform Movement Is Stirring in the United Food and Commercial Workers
The United Food and Commercial Workers, one of the US’s largest unions, has shed members despite seeing its bank account expand over the last decade. A rank-and-file reform movement wants to democratize UFCW and push the union to spend its resources on organizing.
Unionized grocery store workers rally to oppose the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons outside a Ralph’s supermarket in Los Angeles on April 13, 2023. (Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images)
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) is one of the country’s largest unions, with 1.2 million members in the United States and Canada, two-thirds of whom work in grocery stores. Like other unions, it has lost membership over the last decade, but it has managed to double its assets.
Reformers in the union are asking why. The UFCW caucus Essential Workers for Democracy has proposed a slate of amendments to expand rank-and-file power in the union and put resources into organizing and strike action. The proposals will be considered at the union’s convention starting today in Las Vegas. The convention is held every five years.
The caucus plans to fight for one-member, one-vote elections by mail for the union’s top officer positions, which would replace the current system where delegates elect officers. A similar change in the United Auto Workers led a reform slate to win top offices in the union recently.
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