UFCW Local #536 is affiliated with the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union.
Our local is made up of about 2,500 members from the Peoria, Galesburg, Springfield, and Bloomington Trades and Labor.
The Local started as the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, also known as Meat Cutters #543. The year was 1914.
In 1946, the Retail Clerks Union formed in Peoria and became #536.
In 1979, Local #543 and Local #536 merged, keeping the Local #536 but now becoming the United Food & Commercial Workers Local #536.
Since the merger of 1979, Local #536 has become more diversified, and in the 1980s, started to organize nursing home workers. (Which has now grown to the second largest membership in our Local.)
In 2001, The Laundry Dry Cleaning and Dye House Workers Local #171 merged with Local #536. Local #171 still remains, however, only as a Pension Fund.
Since the 2001 merger, Local #536 has added a Retail Vision Shop, along with several new nursing homes.
In 2015, our office was relocated to Marquette Heights from Peoria, IL. The new office address is: 101 Grant Rd, Marquette Heights, IL 61554. We are now located off I-474.
Our Local has strength in numbers, as well as diversity, and that is what makes us
UFCW LOCAL 536
