Local 1428 began serving its membership in 1937. Prior to its actual documentation of Charter, Safeway Store Managers, who formed together at that time for their own job security, conceived it.
The clerks working in those stores realized the effects of strength through unity, and began joining their Association. Obviously, it wasn’t long before the clerks outnumbered the managers. Those who could be considered principals approached the Retail Clerks International Association in the early months of 1938. On April 18, 1938, Local 1428 was founded by issuance of a Charter.
The approximate membership of the Local at that time was less than 100 members. Dues were collected on a weekly basis as the Union Representatives made visits to each store. One store, Crawford Valley Outlet, in El Monte, employed 15 of the Local’s total membership at that time.
In January 1942, Local 1428 began merger talks with a larger Local based in the Los Angeles area, in the attempt to form what was then called a tri-county division. The merger was accomplished in May 1942, but due to rapid growth in the population, the tri-county division proved extremely unsuccessful and in December 1943, that division separated and Local 1428 once again received it’s own separate Charter.
In the 1940′s a major struggle at hand was to reduce the need to report to work every day on an unscheduled basis. The biggest goal at that time was to obtain a forty-hour workweek with scheduled working hours. Shortly after that, Local 1428 lost it’s Charter to the International for reasons unknown. A subsequent Charter was issued on January 18, 1944, and Local 1428 has continued to grow since that day.
The Retail Clerks International Association and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butchers of North America merged in 1979 to become the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. At the July 1993 International Convention held in Toronto, Canada, it was announced and voted to once again increase our members and strength by merging with the Retail Wholesale Department Store Workers Union (RWDSU), which brought the UFCW total membership to about 1.4 million members in the USA and Canada.
Early in 1990, Local 1428 was forced into bankruptcy as a result of an unfavorable court decision stemming from a lawsuit pending since the late 1970′s. After a complete change in leadership in October 1991, Local 1428 has returned to full financial soundness and has purchased and moved into it’s new state of the art headquarters in Claremont. The Local is once again a prominent, innovative and recognized labor organization throughout the International Union.
Our membership is currently composed of three divisions: Food, Drug and Professional. Our current membership is just under 5600. We have had a decrease in our membership, which we attribute to the merging of major food companies (Food 4 Less and Ralphs), (Vons and Safeway), (Lucky, Sav-On and Albertsons), (Thrifty and Rite-Aid), and the closing of another major company (Smiths) in Southern California (loss of market share). This, of course, resulted in many layoffs.The governing body has assigned the responsibility of leadership at Local 1428 to President, Connie M. Leyva. By virtue of her office, she is a full time staff person and presides over the Executive Board. The governing body consists of twelve Vice Presidents, who work in and represent the divisions mentioned above.
UFCW National News
