Posts Tagged: UFCW Local 5

Dolores Huerta – In 1960, she helped create the Agricultural Worker’s Association (AWA), and in 1962, she and Chavez launched the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), the predecessor to the United Farm Workers Union (UFW).

The UFCW is honoring working women during Women’s History Month by highlighting the achievements of women workers from the past as well as present day.

Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, Addie Wyatt and Dolores Huerta made great strides for women workers and the labor movement by taking leadership roles in unions and community groups to fight for civil rights, worker rights, and economic justice.

Decades later, women workers of today are continuing the fight for those rights. Women like Thelma Moore from the Respect the Bump campaign and Safeway worker and UFCW Local 5 member Joanne Murtha, are a few examples of women workers taking action to make their workplace and communities better.

To help celebrate women workers, submit stories of strong women workers to submissions@ufcw.org.  

Joanne Murtha – UFCW Local 5 member and has worked at Safeway for 25 years. She does almost every job in the store and advocates and cares for her coworkers.

Addue Wyatt – First female African American international vice president of the UFCW.

UFCW members from across the country attend trainings to become safety and health activists in their local unions.

Members of UFCW Locals 5, 7R, 9, 75, 227, 555, 881, 1473, and 1776, gathered in Chicago last week for four days of advanced training on safety and health.  Members started their training in December, 2011, when the UFCW Occupational Safety and Health Office conducted a train the trainer course. In the course of three and half years, members have become safety and health leaders and activists in their local unions.

Ramon Zuniga from UFCW Local 7R, talked about what attending this training meant to him. “This training helped me focus on the importance of safety and health for workers. I am energized to go back to my president and see what I can do to educate not only members, but also local staff on safety and health. The more people educated, the more workers we can reach,” he said.

Throughout the trainings, members learned new in-depth safety information; traded stories about their successes and challenges; explored ways of overcoming language barriers; and designed and presented their own training sessions.