Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union

Last updated
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
AbbreviationRWDSU
Formation1937
Type Trade union
Headquarters New York City, New York, US
Location
  • United States
Membership (2014)
60,522 [1]
President
 Stuart Appelbaum
Affiliations
Website rwdsu.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Founded in 1937, the RWDSU represents about 60,000 workers in a wide range of industries, including but not limited to retail, grocery stores, poultry processing, dairy processing, cereal processing, soda bottlers, bakeries, health care, hotels, manufacturing, public sector workers like crossing guards, sanitation, and highway workers, warehouses, building services, and distribution.

Contents

History

Montgomery Ward strike (1940s)

In 1943, the union organized a labor strike at the Montgomery Ward & Co. department store, after company management refused to comply with a War Labor Board order to recognize the union and institute the terms of a collective bargaining agreement the board had worked out. The strike involved nearly 12,000 workers in Jamaica, New York; Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; St. Paul, Minnesota; Denver, Colorado; San Rafael, California; and Portland, Oregon. Ward's then cut wages and fired many union activists, with company chairman Sewell Avery later alleging "government has been coercing both employers and employees to accept a brand of unionism which in all too many cases is engineered by people who are not employees of the plant". [2]

On April 26, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered US Army troops to seize the company's property in Chicago and remove Avery, who was forced out of his office by two troops. [3] [4] [5] This ouster of Avery was based on charges he was impeding distribution of vital products during war. Jesse Holman Jones, the United States Secretary of Commerce, was installed as manager of the company's Chicago plant.

The workers again chose (via a National Labor Relations Board election) to form a collective bargaining organization in the summer of 1944, but Montgomery Ward continued to refuse to recognize the union. On December 27, 1944, Roosevelt issued an executive order authorizing the Secretary of War to seize all company property nationwide to force compliance with War Labor Board orders. The seizure was upheld by a United States Court of Appeals (United States v. Montgomery Ward & Co., 150 C. 2d 369), but the seizure was terminated in 1945 by President Harry S. Truman.

Despite the federal government's intervention, RWDSU never did achieve a firm foothold at Montgomery Ward. Union membership at the company dropped to zero by 1948.

The Montgomery Ward strike only strengthened the criticism coming from the union's locals, who accused the national leadership of incompetence in the planning and conduct of the strike.

Post-war period of merger and disaffiliation

Membership (US records) [6]
Finances (US records; ×$1000) [6]
     Assets     Liabilities     Receipts     Disbursements

In 1954, the Distributive, Processing, and Office Workers of America (itself formed from the merger of the United Office and Professional Workers of America; the Food, Tobacco and Agricultural Workers Union; and locals that had left the RWDSU 4 years ago), merged with the RWDSU. [7] It also absorbed the Playthings, Jewelry and Novelty Workers' International Union. [8]

In 1969, ten of the largest local unions (representing 40,000 members) belonging to the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union disaffiliated from that international union, formed a new union (the National Council of Distributive Workers of America), and joined the Alliance for Labor Action. [9] The Distributive Workers joined the United Auto Workers in 1979.

In 1974, the Cigar Makers International Union, Samuel Gompers' old union, merged with RWDSU. [10]

1199: The National Health Care Workers' Union was, for a time, affiliated with the RWDSU.

Merger with UFCW (1993 to present)

In 2017, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing on labor law reform in which Karen Cox, an Illinois forklift operator for Americold Logistics, testified in favor of the proposed Employee Rights Act. She alleged that RWDSU Local 578 pressured or tricked several of her co-workers into signing authorization cards to join the union, rather than participating in a secret ballot. Following the voluntary recognition of the union by Americold, Ms. Cox filed a successful decertification petition. After the decertification election, RWDSU filed an appeal with the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB ultimately upheld the unionization at Americold, throwing out the uncounted ballots from the decertification election. [11]

In 2019, Amazon cancelled its plans to build a corporate headquarters, HQ2, in Queens, New York City, after strong opposition from some local politicians, activists, and the RWDSU. The day before Amazon announced pulling out, union personnel met with Amazon executives to ask Amazon to remain neutral toward unionization at its new Staten Island distribution center, where employees were attempting to unionize. According to The New York Times, "There is no evidence that the union issue was the primary factor in Amazon’s decision." [12]

Members of the United States Congress meeting with RWDSU members, in 2021, to support the union's efforts to unionize the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama. Terri Sewell at RWDSU in support of Amazon workers unionizing in 2021 01.jpg
Members of the United States Congress meeting with RWDSU members, in 2021, to support the union's efforts to unionize the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama.

In 2020, workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, petitioned to form a bargaining unit representing the facility's 1,500 employees. If the petition is successful, the union formed would be the first to represent Amazon employees in the United States. [13] [14] Workers at the Amazon facility voted over 2-to-1 against the unionization drive according to preliminary calculations, and the RWDSU has alleged improprieties by Amazon. [15]

Presidents

1937: Samuel Wolchok [16]
1949: Irving Simon [16]
1954: Max Greenberg [17]
1976: Alvin Heaps [18]
1986: Lenore Miller
1998: Stuart Appelbaum

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powell's Books</span> Bookstore chain selling new and used books

Powell's Books is a chain of bookstores in Portland, Oregon, and its surrounding metropolitan area. Powell's headquarters, dubbed Powell's City of Books, claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. Powell's City of Books is located in the Pearl District on the edge of downtown and occupies a full city block between NW 10th and 11th Avenues and between W. Burnside and NW Couch Streets. It contains over 68,000 square feet, about 1.6 acres of retail floor space.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) is a labor union representing approximately 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada in industries including retail; meatpacking, food processing and manufacturing; hospitality; agriculture; cannabis; chemical trades; security; textile, and health care. UFCW is affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the AFL–CIO; it disaffiliated from the AFL–CIO in 2005 but reaffiliated in 2013. UFCW is also affiliated to UNI Global Union and the IUF.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">REI</span> American retail and outdoor recreation consumer cooperative

Recreational Equipment, Inc., doing business as REI, is an American retail and outdoor recreation services corporation. It is organized as a consumers' co-operative. REI sells camping gear, hiking, climbing, cycling, water, running, fitness, snow, travel equipment, and men, women and kids clothing. It also offers services such as outdoor-oriented vacations and courses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montgomery Ward</span> Retailer in the United States

Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The current Montgomery Ward Inc. is a national online shopping and mail-order catalog retailer that started several years after the original Montgomery Ward shut down.

The Retail Clerks International Union (RCIU) was a North American labor union that represented retail employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1199: The National Health Care Workers' Union</span> American labor union (1932–1998)

1199: The National Health Care Workers' Union was an American labor union founded as the Drug, Hospital, and Health Care Employees Union-District 1199 by Leon J. Davis for pharmacists in New York City in 1932. The union organized all workers in drug stores on an industrial basis, including pharmacists, clerks, and soda jerks. The union led pioneering pickets and strikes against racial segregation and racially discriminatory hiring in Harlem and elsewhere in New York City during the 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1905 Chicago teamsters' strike</span> Sympathy strike

The 1905 Chicago Teamsters' strike was a sympathy strike and lockout by the United Brotherhood of Teamsters in the summer of 1905 in the city of Chicago, Illinois. The strike was initiated by a small clothing workers' union. But it soon spread as nearly every union in the city, including the Teamsters, supported the job action with sympathy strikes. Initially, the strike was aimed at the Montgomery Ward department store, but it affected almost every employer in the metropolitan region after the Teamsters walked out. The strike eventually pitted the Teamsters against the Employers' Association of Chicago, a broad coalition of business owners formed a few years earlier to oppose unionization in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Smalls</span> American labor organizer (b. 1988/89)

Christian Smalls is an American labor organizer known for his role in leading Amazon worker organization in Staten Island, a borough in New York City. He is the president and founder of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) since 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon worker organization</span> Collective worker action at the American e-commerce company

Some warehouse workers of Amazon, the largest American e-commerce retailer with 750,000 employees, have organized for workplace improvements in light of the company's scrutinized labor practices and stance against unions. Worker actions have included work stoppages and have won concessions including increased pay, safety precautions, and time off. There are unionized Amazon workers in both the United States and Europe.

The United Office and Professional Workers of America (UOPWA) (1937–1950) was a CIO-affiliated union and one of the white-collar unions formed by the CPUSA-breakaway party of Lovestoneites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple and unions</span> Apple Inc. related worker organizations and unions

Apple Inc. workers around the globe have been involved in organizing since the 1990s. Apple worker organizations have been made up of retail, corporate, and outsourced workers. Employees have joined trade unions and formed works councils in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States.

The 1979 Boston University strike was a labor strike involving employees at Boston University, a private university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The strike, involving faculty members, clerical workers, and librarians, began on April 5 and was fully ended by April 23.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon Labor Union</span> American labor union for Amazon workers

The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) is an independent labor union specifically for Amazon workers, created on April 20, 2021. On April 1, 2022, the Amazon workers at a warehouse in Staten Island, JFK8, backed by the ALU became the first unionized Amazon workers recognized by the National Labor Relations Board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starbucks unions</span> Unionization efforts at the multinational coffee shop chain

As of June 2023, over 8,000 workers at over 360 Starbucks stores in at least 40 states in the United States have voted to unionize, primarily with Workers United. As of March 2023 none have yet enacted a collective bargaining agreement. This unionization effort started at a store in Buffalo, New York. About a third of Starbucks' Chilean workforce is already unionized, as well as 450 workers in New Zealand and eight stores in Canada. The longest Starbucks strike lasted 64 days, took place in Brookline, Massachusetts in September 2022 and resulted in the unionization of the employees at that location.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Bates</span> American labor organizer

Jennifer Bates is an American labor organizer known for her role in leading Amazon worker organization in Bessemer, Alabama.

Workers at Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), an American retail and outdoor recreation services co-op, have one recognized trade union. The company has faced accusations of being anti-union. In 2016, REI workers went public with organization efforts that had been growing over concerns about wages and working conditions in the Pacific Northwest, and the company has since faced increasing public criticism from its employees nationwide over issues including living wages, hourly worker policies, and safety protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers have organized at least five petitions since 2016. REI has maintained that it is committed to adjusting and improving working conditions for its employees.

Starting in 2022, workers from several Trader Joe's grocery stores have voted on whether to unionize. A store in Hadley, Massachusetts, became the first to unionize and created Trader Joe's United, an independent union unaffiliated with national unions. Stores in Minneapolis, Louisville, and Oakland joined them. Other workers have organized with the United Food and Commercial Workers. Trader Joe's, a chain with over 500 locations and over 50,000 employees, is known for its neighborhood store vibe and over-the-top customer service, which has sometimes clashed with its working conditions. Corporate management has a history of resisting staff unionization efforts. Driven by COVID-19 pandemic working conditions, American service sector organization increased, and Trader Joe's worker concerns over safety, pay, and benefits contributed to their union drive.

Stuart Harris Appelbaum is an American trade union leader. Appelbaum has been the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) since May 1, 1998. He is also president of the Jewish Labor Committee. In February 2022, he was elected board of directors of the National Endowment for Democracy, a U.S. government-funded non-profit.

The Congress of Essential Workers is an American labour organization co-founded by Chris Smalls in 2020. It has campaigned to raise Amazon's minimum wage.

Max Greenberg was an American labor union leader.

References

  1. ↑ US Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards. File number 000-071. Report submitted March 31, 2015.
  2. ↑ James Grant, Money of The Mind: Borrowing and Lending in America from the Civil War to Michael Milken, New York: Macmillan, 1994. p. 26
  3. ↑ "FDR seizes control of Montgomery Ward".
  4. ↑ "Statement on the Seizure of Montgomery Ward Co. Properties | the American Presidency Project".
  5. ↑ "FDR seizes control of Montgomery Ward Dec. 27, 1944". Politico .
  6. 1 2 US Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards. File number 000-071. (Search)
  7. ↑ "Guide to the United Automobile Workers of America, District 65 Records WAG.006" . Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  8. ↑ Mitchell, James P. (1955). Directory of Labor Unions in the United States. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Labor.
  9. ↑ Stetson, Damon. "Local Union of Retail Workers Is Near Split With Parent Body." New York Times. March 21, 1969; "New Union Is Formed." Associated Press. May 25, 1969.
  10. ↑ "Archives of the Cigar Makers' International Union". University of Maryland Libraries. 2007. Archived from the original on 2012-06-22. Retrieved 2012-03-10.
  11. ↑ Legislative Reforms to the National Labor Relations Act: Hearing before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, 115th Cong. (2017) (Testimony of Karen Cox).
  12. ↑ Kitroeff, Natalie (14 February 2019). "Amazon and New York Unions Had 'Productive Meeting,' Then Came a Shock". New York Times . Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  13. ↑ Selyukh, Alina (25 November 2020). "Amazon Warehouse Workers In Alabama Petition To Unionize". NPR. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  14. ↑ Greene, Jay (23 November 2020). "Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama file to hold unionization vote". Washington Post. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  15. ↑ Laura Hautala (2021-04-09). Amazon union loses election: Alabama warehouse workers reject historic organizing bid. cnet.com, accessed 2021-04-21
  16. 1 2 Madsen, Chris (2017). "Social Democrat Space on Vancouver's Contested Waterfront: Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (CIO) Organizing Amongst Sugar and Grain Workers 1946-1949". Northern Mariner. 27 (2).
  17. ↑ "GREENBERG ELECTED BY C. I. O. STORE UNIT". New York Times. January 28, 1954. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
  18. ↑ "Alvin Heaps, 67, Dies; Retail Union President". New York Times. September 9, 1986. Retrieved 8 February 2023.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.