United Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Employees of America

The United Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Employees had its beginnings as an aggressive union which evolved out of the venerable but conservative Retail Clerks International Association and the Congress of Industrial Organizations' Department Store Organizing Committee in the 1930's.

In the period 1937-1940, the union, then known as the United Retail Employes of America, made major gains in New York City which included not only organizing the large department stores there, but also establishing a forty hour week for retail clerks in the city. A right-left struggle over the leadership of the union was dormant during World War II, only to arise with new violence in 1948. This internecine rivalry resulted in a decline in the union, to the benefit of its old rival, the Retail Clerks International Association. In 1954, the union's name changed to the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

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