Your union was founded in the 1940s –a groundbreaking and transformative decade for the Canadian labour movement.
It was in 1944 when a small group of Loblaws workers formed a union known as the Loblaw Workers’ Council, established a constitution, elected an executive and bargained their first collective agreement.
From the mid-1940s to mid-1950s, the Loblaw Workers’ Council operated with volunteers and represented workers in all Loblaw stores in Ontario. Workers donated their time to handle grievances, resolve differences with management, set bargaining priorities and negotiate agreements.
By the mid-1950s, Loblaws, like many other businesses, expanded in the boom following the Second World War. With more members and demand for more service, the Loblaw Workers’ Council needed a full-time president, a full-time secretary treasurer, and by the early 1960s, full-time staff representatives.
With the union’s growth came broader participation in the labour movement, including affiliation to the Ontario Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress. To meet the conditions of these central labour bodies, the Loblaw Workers Council changed its name to the Union of Canadian Retail Employees (UCRE) and declared its willingness to hold merger talks with any international union representing workers in the retail food industry.
In 1978, UCRE merged with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters. A year later, the Meat Cutters merged with the Retail Clerks International Union, forming the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. With that, Local 1000A came to be, able to organize workers in any industry.
