In an effort to build a more unified labor movement, the United Food and Commercial Workers announced today it is reaffiliating with the AFL-CIO and disaffiliating from the Change to Win federation.

However, UFCW President Joseph Hansen said UFCW will remain active in CTW's Strategic Organizing Center and will “bring our AFL-CIO partners into collaboration with private sector unions in an effort to build more power for workers.”

Hansen made the decision to rejoin the AFL-CIO and received a vote of support from UFCW's Executive Board at a meeting in preparation for the union's upcoming convention, which beginsAug. 12, UFCW spokeswoman Jill Cashen told BNA today.

In announcing the affiliation, Hansen said UFCW was joining the AFL-CIO “because it is the right thing to do for UFCW members, giving them more power and influence.”

“This is not about which building in Washington, D.C., we call home—it is about fostering more opportunities for workers to have a true voice on the job,” he said. “It is about joining forces to build a more united labor movement that can fight back against the corporate and political onslaught facing our members each and every day.”

The affiliation will become effective Sept. 1 in time for UFCW to send members to the AFL-CIO convention, which begins Sept. 8 in Los Angeles, Cashen said, although they will not be seated delegates. With 1.3 million members, UFCW will become the largest private sector affiliate of the AFL-CIO, she added.

UFCW left the AFL-CIO in 2005 to join with six other former AFL-CIO unions to form the Change to Win Federation (146 DLR AA-1, 8/1/05; 187 DLR AA-1, 9/28/05).