Members Approximately 15,000 | Office location Winnipeg, Manitoba | |
Full name United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 832 Head union United Food and Commercial Workers Affiliation Manitoba Federation of Labour, Winnipeg Labour Council Key people Jeff Traeger, President | ||
The UFCW Local 832 is a local union of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. It represents workers at a variety of workplaces in Winnipeg and elsewhere in Manitoba, Canada. It has a heavy representation in the service and retail sector, common for UFCW locals. Local 832 can be considered a 'mega-local', or a union local consisting of a large number of workers and workplaces. This is due to a long series of mergers between UFCW locals in Manitoba; much like with other mega-local mergers, there have been benefits and costs to the membership. Until the secession of the St. Boniface Hospital workers (into UFCW Local 1869), UFCW 832 contained nearly all UFCW-affiliated workplaces in Manitoba. As a result, it is the largest private-sector union in Manitoba.
Contents
Sectors represented in UFCW 832
This is a partial list of sectors represented by UFCW 832.
History
Founded in 1938, Local 832 was approximately 700 members strong by 1964 when Bernard Christophe was elected President. Christophe held the presidency of Local 832 until ending his 38-year stretch as head of the local by stepping down in 2002 [2]. He was replaced by Robert Ziegler in the fall of 2002, who held the office until he recently retired on December 1, 2011. On October the 24th, 2011, the local's executive board elected Jeff Traeger to be the local's third full-time president in its 73 year history. Jeff had been the treasurer since 2004, and Beatrice Bruske was also elected by the board to serve the remainder of Jeff's term as Secretary/Treasurer (the 1st female in an executive administrative role in the local's history).
The local was recently successful in organizing a group of Mexican agricultural workers at Mayfair Foods. Although enough workers signed union cards to automatically certify in September 2006, a series of disputes before the Manitoba Labour Board pushed back their certification until June 26, 2007 This certification has national importance, they became the first group of organized foreign farm workers in Canada.
Structure
The ultimate decision-making body for the UFCW Local 832 is the Executive Board, made up of the President, Secretary-Treasurer, Recorder, and 15 Vice-Presidents. All members of the Executive Board are elected by the general membership of the Local in an election held every four years. The President and Secretary-Treasurer are full-time, paid positions, while the Vice-Presidents are elected from different constituencies within the Local. These constituencies are made up of different employment sectors organized by the Local. Voting is not restricted by constituencies, and any member can vote for any or all of the positions open on the Board.