At his core, Joseph Hansen is an organizer. With his early background as a rank-and-file activist and volunteer organizer, Hansen knows how important it is for the union movement to reach out to workers at an unprecedented level and in new ways.
As president of the million-member United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Hansen has demonstrated that by inspiring creative organizing and activism—with Walmart workers, with Black Friday strikes and rallies, with Amazon warehouse workers and more. He has fought tirelessly to raise wages and standards in grocery and retail stores and in food processing and meat packing. In doing so, he has moved the entire labor movement forward.
Under his leadership, the UFCW also has been at the forefront of some of the most effective global corporate campaign work in history.
Hansen, who was elected president of his union in March 2004, led UFCW in its 2013 re-affiliation with the AFL-CIO. On the AFL-CIO Executive Council, he chaired the International committee and served on the Article XX Appeals, Finance, Immigration, Legislation/Policy, Political, State & Local Labor Councils & Community Partners and Strategic Approaches committees.
The Executive Council thanks Joseph Hansen for his contributions to his union, to this council and to all working families.