Financed by a grant from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, this project consists of interviews conducted by James A. Cavanaugh of the Historical Society staff with six retired leaders of the various unions which merged in 1979 to form the UFCW. Those unions were the Retail Clerks International Union (RCIU), which had previously merged with the Boot and Shoe Workers, and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America (AMC&BW), which had merged with the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) in 1968, the Fur and Leather Workers in 1955, and several smaller groups in the 1940s-1960s. Since its creation in 1979, the UFCW has also taken in the Barbers and Beauticians Union.
