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| Abbreviation | RWDSU |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1937 |
| Type | Trade union |
| Headquarters | New York City,New York, US |
| Location |
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| Membership | 60,522[1] (2014) |
President | Stuart Appelbaum |
| Affiliations | |
| Website | rwdsu |
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) is alabor 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.
In 1943, the union organized a labor strike at theMontgomery Ward & Co. department store, after company management refused to comply with aWar 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 inJamaica, New York;Detroit,Michigan;Chicago,Illinois;St. Paul, Minnesota;Denver, Colorado;San Rafael, California; andPortland, Oregon. Ward's then cut wages and fired many union activists, with company chairmanSewell 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, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt orderedUS 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, theUnited States Secretary of Commerce, was installed as manager of the company's Chicago plant.
The workers again chose (via aNational 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 anexecutive order authorizing theSecretary of War to seize all company property nationwide to force compliance with War Labor Board orders. The seizure was upheld by aUnited States Court of Appeals (United States v. Montgomery Ward & Co., 150 C. 2d 369), but the seizure was terminated in 1945 by PresidentHarry 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.
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In 1954, the Distributive, Processing, and Office Workers of America (itself formed from the merger of theUnited Office and Professional Workers of America; theFood, Tobacco and Agricultural Workers Union; and locals that had left the RWDSU 4 years ago), merged with the RWDSU.[7] It also absorbed thePlaythings, 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 (theNational Council of Distributive Workers of America), and joined theAlliance for Labor Action.[9] The Distributive Workers joined theUnited Auto Workers in 1979.
In 1974, theCigar 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.
In 2017, the House of RepresentativesSubcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing on labor law reform in which Karen Cox, an Illinoisforklift operator for Americold Logistics, testified in favor of the proposedEmployee 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 toThe New York Times, "There is no evidence that the union issue was the primary factor in Amazon’s decision."[12]
In 2020, workers at an Amazon fulfillment center inBessemer, 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]
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