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Mergers Add Strength In Numbers

 

As the result of aggressive organizing programs and strong, united and strategic communication with employers, membership in the Retail Clerks soared in post-Depression America. Along with this astounding growth, the Union began to diversify its membership, with many health care, bank and footwear workers joining the Union.

In 1974, a Professional Employees Division was established within the Retail Clerks Union, sparking rapid growth in membership in the health care field and related professions. Three years later, the Boot and Shoe Workers Union merged with the Union, forming the Footwear Division of the Retail Clerks.

In 1980, the Barbers, Beauticians and Allied Industries International Assn. also joined the fold. The merger of the Retail Clerks and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union in 1979 created one of the most powerful and progressive worker organizations in the history of the Labor Movement.

It united two Union powerhouses, both with a long history of fighting for justice and economic security for working people.

It was this merger that gave life to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. It is now the largest private-sector union in North America, with 1.4 million members.

The Union was strengthened even more in 1995, when the Distillery, Wine and Allied Workers International Union became a part of the UFCW.

 

Solidarity Forever! Traditional American Union Anthem Sung to the Tune of

“Battle Hymn of the Republic” 

Chorus:

Solidarity forever!  

Solidarity forever!

Solidarity forever! For the Union makes us strong

When the Union’s inspiration

through the workers’ blood shall run,

There can be no power greater

anywhere beneath the sun.

Yet what force on earth is weaker

than the feeble strength of one?

But the Union makes us strong.

They have taken untold millions

that they never toiled to earn,

But without our brain and muscle

not a single wheel can turn.

We can break their haughty power,

gain our freedom when we learn

That the Union makes us strong.

In our hands is placed a power

greater than their hoarded gold;

Greater than the might of armies,

magnified a thousand-fold.

We can bring to birth a new world

from the ashes of the old

For the Union makes us strong.

In our fight for this great movement,

like our fathers did before,

We must hand down to our children

what it is we’re standing for.

Give them truth and knowledge of

the future that is in store.

For the Union makes us strong.

 

 
Official publication of UFCW 8-Golden State Jacques Loveall, President