The full form of RWDSU is Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. It’s used on Associations & Organizations ,Regional Organizations in United States

Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union is a labor union in the United States. The RWDSU represents in a wide range of industries, including but not limited to retail, grocery stores

For 80 years, the RWDSU has fought for the rights of working people. The roots of the RWDSU were laid down in the 1930s when a group of local unions including retail clerks and warehouse workers in New York City banded together. The RWDSU was chartered by the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1937.

In 1954 the existing RWDSU merged with the Playthings, Jewelry and Novelty Workers Union and the Distributing, Processing and Office Workers Union, forming the union as we know it today. Over the years a number of other unions have also merged with the RWDSU, including AFL founder Sam Gompers’ Cigar Makers in 1974. In October, 1993 the RWDSU affiliated with the 1.5 million member United Food and Commercial Workers.

The RWDSU is proud of being a progressive union that is never afraid to use its voice to call for change and social justice. Members of our union marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the South during the early days of the civil rights movement, and were on hand at – and involved in planning – the historic 1963 March on Washington. And, we take special pride that in 1968 the RWDSU was the first union anywhere to negotiate a contract guaranteeing Dr. King’s birthday as a paid holiday.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (right) meets with RWDSU Local 3  members in New York City to review a new contract with Bloomingdales in the 1960s. Senator and future President John F. Kennedy joined the RWDSU at a rally in the 1950s (below).

When different winds of change were blowing throughout the world in the early 1990s, the RWDSU was a part of it. The RWDSU became the first union to endorse Bill Clinton for President in 1992. And RWDSU officers served as election observers in South Africa in 1994, during that country’s first post-apartheid free elections. The RWDSU was also one of the first unions to pass a convention resolution to support black trade unions in South Africa.