United Service Employees Union.

The United Service Employees Union, Local 329 Building Service Employees Union, AFL-CIO, is a Chicago union of workers in food manufacturing and retailing businesses, department store clerks, factory employees in various light industries, and others. The local had a turbulent history in the 1940s, beginning with a revolt against the leadership of the Retail Clerks International Protective Association, AFL, and continuing through several shifts between AFL and CIO affiliation until the merger of those two unions in 1955. Sidney Lens, leader of Local 329, figured prominently in both the internal operation of the union and in its attempts to organize the food-industry employees on a city-wide basis. His leadership also involved the local with such organizations as the NAACP and the Chicago Committee for the Defense of Labor Victims of Franco.