Two Unions Studying Possible Merger
The United Food and Commercial Workers and the Communications Workers of America have begun talking about a merger.
Morton Bahr, president of the CWA, and two UFCW officials confirmed that each union had formed a merger committee and that the committees met for the first time on Monday.
“The discussions center around the potential of forming a new union that’s based around community organizing,” Bahr said.
On the surface, the two unions have few similarities. CWA, which has about a half-million members, represents primarily telephone and communications workers; the UFCW represents grocery store workers and retail clerks.
But both represent workers employed in growth areas of the economy, and UFCW President Doug Dority and Bahr formed a close personal relationship when they both supported interim AFL-CIO President Thomas Donahue against John Sweeney, who took over the federation.