1900 - 1979

           The Growth of Organized Labor

1901 - United Textile Workers of America receives AFL charter. Amalgamation of dozens of separate craft unions.

1904 - International Fur Workers (IFWU) Union formed.

" With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for developing character in man, than any other association of men."

                                                                                ~ Clarence Darrow, 1909

1913 - Major strikes secure minimum wage standards.

1937 - Congress of Industrial Organizations charters the National Leather Workers Association.

1938 - Fur and Leather Workers of America created by IFWU and NLWA merger.

1944 - James Suffridge elected International President of the Retail Clerks International Union.

1948 - Retail Clerks International Association (RCIA) begins organizing health care and non-profit hospital field workers.

1950 - Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) affiliates insurance and Allied Workers Organizing Committee.

1953 - IAWOC changes to Insurance Workers of America at founding convention in Cleveland.

1968 - United Packinghouse Workers Association merges with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters.

1968 - Jim Housewright elected International President of the Retail Clerks International Union.

     1976 - Addie Wyatt elected first woman vice president of Amalgamated Meat Cutters.

    1977 - Boot and Shoe Workers Union merges with Retail Clerks International Association. 

    1977 - Name changed to Retail Clerks International Union - 5th largest in the AFL-CIO.

" I know this union. I know the contribution it has made to the welfare of its members. I know the fight it has made for legislation improving the hours and working conditions of its members, and all those who labor, and I know that it has always interpreted generously its responsibilities not only to the laboring people of this country, but also to all our citizens."

                                      ~ President John F. Kennedy, RCIU Convention, 1963

1978 - Professional Division changed to Professional and Health Care Division.

1979 - Merger of the Retail Clerks and the Meat Cutters creates the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

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