William (Bill) H. Wynn, founding President of the 1.4 million member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), passed away last Friday at Naples Community Hospital in Florida after a recent illness.
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A primary architect of the modern labor movement, Wynn earned a place in labor history for crafting the 1979 merger that established one of the first modern multi-jurisdictional, mega-unions – the UFCW. As President of the Retail Clerks International Union, Bill Wynn brought together the Retail Clerks and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen to form a million member-plus organization that gave workers a unified voice in the food industry, from the packing house to the grocery store.
Wynn’s leadership made the UFCW a militant, progressive, and politically active worker organization, always on the cutting edge of organizing, bargaining, and legislative action. His foresight and innovative approach to union building positioned the UFCW to forcefully fight off the anti-worker economic and political measures unleashed by the Reagan era and grow the UFCW into one of the most powerful private sector unions in North America. The union added a quarter of a million new members in its first five years, more than any other union in the AFL-CIO.
He served on the AFL-CIO’s Executive Council and the executive boards of the labor federation’s Maritime Trades, Food and Beverage Trades, and Industrial Union Departments. Wynn actively championed civic, civil rights, social justice and human rights causes and served as an Executive Board member of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute, as well as other presidential, national, and community committees. In 1983, Wynn established a special UFCW relationship with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in which the UFCW has become one of the largest sources of research funding for the organization, raising more than US$21m to find a cure for leukemia.
Wynn’s leadership reflected his lifelong commitment to organizing and union building. He was born the son of an auto worker in 1931 in South Bend, Ind., and began his labor career at age 17 when he joined the Retail Clerks International Union. He became a union representative in 1954 for Retail Clerks Local 37. His talent for organizing and leadership took him swiftly through the ranks until he became International President of the Retail Clerks in 1977 and the unanimous choice to lead the UFCW International Union when it was created two years later.
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By GlobalDataWynn retired in 1994 and was succeeded by current UFCW International President Douglas H. Dority. He is survived by his wife, Bonnie, sons Mark and Brad, and the Wynn family.
