As September began, RWDSU Local 1102 members working in food service returned from a well-deserved summer break to greet students heading back to classrooms across districts, high schools, and universities. To mark the start of the new academic year, Local 1102 hosted Welcome Back Meetings with members on campuses. These gatherings provided an important space to reconnect, share updates, and highlight the essential work members do each day. They also offered the opportunity to review new benefits, answer questions, and ensure the year began on a strong note.

RWDSU Local 21 joined thousands at the Healing Appalachia music festival this September, raising awareness and connecting people in recovery with resources and opportunities. The annual event brings music and community together to support those impacted by addiction across the Appalachian region and Local 21 was proud to be part of it showing the community in recovery how a union can be part of that support system.

Today, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) issued a new report on how “the H-2B visa program has ballooned without being fixed.” Suggesting that “expanding it to year-round jobs like meatpacking would lower wages and revenue.” Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which represents over 15,000 poultry workers at facilities across the southern United States, as well as meatpacking and processing workers in other parts of the country issued the following statement…

On September 9–10, RWDSU members at TreeHouse Foods in Farmers Branch, Texas took an important step forward by exercising language in their collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The TreeHouse CBA includes a provision requiring training for stewards and supervisors, conducted by the Federal Mediation Conciliation Services (FMCS), with the company covering costs and lost wages. But in practice, this clause has not recently been regularly utilized. This year, the RWDSU Tennessee District Council made sure that changed. With FMCS unable to provide the training under the current administration, the National Mediation Conciliation Services (NMCS) stepped in.