UFCW Int’l President to Announce Retirement — Essential Voice Strike Ready Edition #6
UFCW International Executive Board set to meet May 13-14 to appoint President Marc Perrone’s successor in private, closed-door meeting.
With UFCW International President Marc Perrone gearing up to announce his retirement, the UFCW International Executive Board is reportedly planning to hand-select a new president of our union.
The 54 members on the Executive Board will decide the next president of our 1.2 million-member union. That’s just 0.004% of our union, about to determine our next president.
In fact, every single president has been appointed by the Executive Board following the previous president’s retirement. Then they get rubber-stamped, years later, by delegates at the International Convention.
To win better union contracts — higher pay, better working conditions, better healthcare and pensions — we need a fighting union that can stand up, not cozy up, to the companies. We need commitments to coordinated bargaining, first day strike pay, and investment in organizing. But we can’t hold our leaders accountable if we can’t even vote on who those leaders are.
The Executive Board is set to meet on May 13th-14th where they will likely vote on Perrone's successor. Members are demanding a more democratic process for selecting the next president.
Essential Workers for Democracy (EW4D) helped fight for One Member, One Vote at the 2023 UFCW International Convention, but a stacked delegate assembly of mostly union staff and officers defeated the resolution.
To secure the right for direct elections of top officers, we will have to fight for and pass a One Member, One Vote resolution at the next UFCW International Convention in 2028. That means helping rank and file members run for convention delegate and make this historic change to our union’s constitution a reality.
In the meantime, the Executive Board still has the power right now to implement democratic changes to the selection process of our next President.
That could include open Zoom town halls and candidate debates, a real campaigning period, and candidates who are committed to earn — not take — members’ votes. It could also include a national straw poll, where every member has a say, and the Executive Board simply ratifies the voice of the members.
Any of these changes are possible for the Executive Board to make. And if they don’t, ask yourself: why won’t they?
