Following the announcement of Brother Meinema’s well-earned retirement, Shawn Haggerty was unanimously elected to lead the UFCW Canada National Council at the Executive Board’s meeting on November 30th.
They run a delegate system where locals send reps to a conference, then those reps vote on behalf of their locals to decide on the executive board. The President is then, seemingly, selected internally by that executive board. I think this results in a system where the leadership has interests in keeping workers uninformed and uninvolved with their union. I have a similar experience to yours in a brief stint in a UFCW job.
All that said, the delegates are voted on. A large enough movement within the union could change their voting mechanics to something more direct, so I remain hopeful that they can reform themselves.
UFCW has, in my opinion, some issues with it’s electoral system.
https://www.ufcw.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33536:paul-meinema-announces-retirement-shawn-haggerty-elected-president-of-the-ufcw-canada-national-council&catid=10381&Itemid=6&lang=en
They run a delegate system where locals send reps to a conference, then those reps vote on behalf of their locals to decide on the executive board. The President is then, seemingly, selected internally by that executive board. I think this results in a system where the leadership has interests in keeping workers uninformed and uninvolved with their union. I have a similar experience to yours in a brief stint in a UFCW job.
All that said, the delegates are voted on. A large enough movement within the union could change their voting mechanics to something more direct, so I remain hopeful that they can reform themselves.