United Automobile, Aircraft, and Vehicle Workers of America. District 65.

District 65 traces its origins to the Wholesale Dry Goods Workers Union organized in September 1933, by Arthur Osman and a group of Jewish workers at H. Eckstein & Sons, a dry goods warehouse on New York's Lower East Side.

In 1937, the local affiliated with the CIO with the agreement that it would expand its jurisdiction to include all warehouse employees in New York City. When in 1937 the United Retail and Wholesale Employees of America (URWEA) received national jurisdiction over the wholesale industries, 65 became a local of that national union. By December, 1941, Local 65's membership was greater than 15,000, and its militant organizing campaigns brought it prominence among left-wing locals in New York City.

During World War II the local adopted the no-strike pledge. Because the International's leadership signed the Taft-Hartley Act's non-communist affidavits in 1948, the local split from the union and formed a joint council with other New York locals, known as the Distributive Trades Council of New York. This organization became part of the Distributive Workers Union in 1950 and later merged with the United Office and Professional Workers of America and the Food, Tobacco, and Agricultural Workers Union to form the Distributive, Processing, and Office Workers. In 1954, 65 returned to the RWDSU.

By 1965, differences between the RWDSU and District 65 over foreign policy, civil rights, and organizational matters resulted in the disaffiliation of 65 from the international. That same year, District 65 joined the short-lived American Labor Alliance formed by the Teamsters and the UAW. Ten years later, a merger between District 65 and the UAW was completed.

From the description of Oral histories [sound recording], 1980-1990. (New York University). WorldCat record id: 477249294