UFCW Members Didn’t Get to Pick Their New President
When United Food and Commercial Workers president Marc Perrone announced his retirement May 13, the union’s leadership immediately appointed his successor. This makes four presidents in a row first selected by UFCW leadership rather than by convention.
Union members picket at Starter Bros. Market in Costa Mesa, California, on March 5, 2025. (Jeff Gritchen / MediaNews Group / Orange County Register via Getty Images)
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) president Marc Perrone announced his retirement May 13. The same day, the union announced his successor, chosen in a special meeting of the international executive board: Milton Jones, previously international secretary-treasurer.
Jones has been a UFCW member for forty-five years, starting as a teenage courtesy clerk at a Kroger grocery store in Alabama. He is the union’s first African American president. The executive board narrowly elected him over Mark Lauritsen, head of the meatpacking and food processing division.
UFCW has 1.3 million members in the United States and Canada, mainly in grocery and meatpacking. International presidents are supposed to be elected by delegates to the union’s conventions, which occur every five years.
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