THE 1.3 MILLION-member United Food and Commercial Workers union has re-affiliated with the AFL-CIO after an eight-year separation from the federation. The UFCW and six other unions formed a rival federation — Change to Win — in 2005. Other unions in the Change to Win group included the Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Farm Workers (UFW), the Carpenters, the Laborers, and Unite HERE.
Change to Win sought to focus operations more around an organizing model and less on political action.
Preceding the UFCW's return to the AFL-CIO were Unite Here in 2009 and the Laborers in 2010. The Carpenters also left Change to Win in 2009 and now operate as an independent union.
For more information, see http://www.ufcw.org/2013/08/08/ufcw-joins-afl-cio/.
