Mission Statement
The mission of UFCW Local 324 is to improve the lives of working families and to bring economic justice to the workplace. The UFCW is one union with one voice. We are committed to changing the places where we work and the communities where we live so that all workers have the opportunity to reach the American Dream.
UFCW members are from many backgrounds and walks of life, but come together as the UFCW for the shared goal of achieving the American Dream. The UFCW is about workers helping workers improve working and living standards. When we unite for better wages, benefits, and working conditions, we help protect and improve the livelihoods of all workers.
History
The modern Labor movement can trace its roots to the Industrial Revolution. The very factories that transformed the efficiency of production also turned the workplace into a danger zone. The labor itself was backbreaking, repetitive and fraught with hazards. It took the deaths and maiming of thousands before workers began to join together in groups to demand that factory owners address their issues. One group of workers to collectively demand a fair shake worked at the Woolworth’s plant in Detroit in 1937. When the owners of the company tried to ignore their concerns they staged a high profile strike at the facility and didn’t relent until their concerns were met. Ironically, their collective action inspired the Retail Clerks Union to expand its reach into the commercial merchandise sector of the economy and its vast pool of workers.
Only a year earlier, Local 324 received its first formal charter from the young Retail Clerks Union and capitalized on the high-profile success of the Woolworth Strike to spread its message to thousands.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union stands as the by-product of mergers between many other trades and professions whose members saw value in uniting in solidarity against an increasingly powerful array of corporate retailers.