Join us for this month’s Labor Forward Forum. The forum is a free, online series held on the third Wednesday of the month from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. Each month, a School for Workers faculty member will interview advocates of the labor/worker movement to highlight their important work, celebrate their progress, and learn from their unique experiences.
Wednesday, February, 2022, at noon we are welcoming Jake Bailey, President of UFCW Local 1473. This event is free, but pre-registration is required to receive the webinar link.
About Jake Bailey, President of UFCW Local 1473
Jake first joined the UFCW in 2001 when he was hired as a forklift operator at Seneca Foods in Janesville. Jake quickly stepped up and became a Union Steward in 2003 where he helped to create solidarity at Seneca, and participated as a bargaining committee member in negotiations in 2008 and 2011 where Seneca members received very strong working condition improvements and large wage increases. He was elected as the chief Union Steward at Seneca in 2011 and later that year was hired on staff with the Local as a Union Representative. Jake became a Vice President on the Executive Board in 2012, and in this role Jake successfully negotiated several large contracts and won hundreds of grievances. He was promoted to Service Director in 2015 where he created relationships with top level executives which led to some of the Local’s richest contract settlements in the meat packing and food processing division up until that point. He was elected as Secretary Treasurer in 2020.
About United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union Local 1473
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union Local 1473 is the largest local union in the State of Wisconsin. Covering nearly the entire state and the upper peninsula of Michigan, our 16,500 members work in many different occupations and industries such as: clerks and meat cutters in retail food stores, office and clerical employees, nursing homes and hospitals, meat packing, Pharmacy employees, retail workers, food processing, bank employees, tannery workers, opticians, barbers and warehouse workers. This union’s mission is to help workers improve their wages, benefits and working conditions, and to work towards improving the members’ lives away from the job as well.