Joseph T. Hansen

Joseph T. Hansen is an activist from the United States, best known for his work as the international president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW).

Early years

Hansen's career as a meat cutter began in 1962 at the National Food store in Milwaukee. As a union member, he shortly became a volunteer organizer for Local 73 of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America.

Union work

By the mid 1960s, Hansen had secured a place in the executive board of Local 73. In 1973, his career as meat cutter came to an end, and his career as a labor leader began as he became an organizer for the Amalgamated Meat Cutters International Union.

In the global union movement front, Hansen was elected president of Union Network International (UNI), an international labor organization, at its first World Congress in Berlin in 2001. He was re-elected president at its second World Congress in Chicago in 2005.

The UFCW

In 1979, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America and the Retail Clerks Union merged to form the UFCW.

In 1985, Hansen was appointed UFCW Northcentral region director in Minnesota and was elected a UFCW International vice president the following year. In 1990, Hansen was appointed UFCW Pacific Region director in California and four years later became director of UFCW’s food processing, packing and manufacturing division.

Hansen was elected UFCW international secretary-treasurer in 1997 and international president in 2004. According to Labor Notes, Hansen's salary in 2004 was $297,790 in 2004, ten to fifteen times the average salary of typical UFCW workers. He was reelected international president in 2008. He was also one of the founding leaders of the new Change to Win Federation after UFCW’s disaffiliation of the AFL-CIO in July 2005.

Health care working group

In March 2005, Hansen was named to the 14-member Citizens' Health Care Working Group. He is the only union leader to serve on the panel. The group was created by the United States Congress, with the goal of unifying the American people on health care issues and communicating concerns to lawmakers.

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