JOSEPH DORISMOND TO HOLD UNION’S SECOND HIGHEST POSITION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 10, 2024

Contact: Chelsea Connor | cconnor@rwdsu.org | 347-866-6259

34-Year Union Organizing Veteran, Haitian Immigrant and Civil Rights Activist Unanimously Elected as Secretary-Treasurer of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union

(NEW YORK, NY) – On Monday, June 3, 2024, Joseph Dorismond was unanimously elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) at the union’s executive board meeting.

“I could not be prouder to have been elected to fill the role of Secretary-Treasurer of the RWDSU. I want to thank RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum for his trust and nomination, and the entire executive board for their confidence in me. The RWDSU is committed to helping immigrant workers fight for greater rights and protections, achieve citizenship, and build up our communities. Organizing has been at the heart of all of my work at the RWDSU, and it is through organizing that we are building stronger workplaces and communities for us all no matter where we come from or what language we speak – together we are one union – together we are RWDSU. I look forward to continuing our work together,” said Joseph Dorismond, newly elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).

“Joseph’s personal story is the story of many of our members. And I cannot think of a better person to help lead us at this critical juncture for the labor movement. Joseph has been leading our organizing work for decades, he supported us through the challenges of the pandemic, and has navigated countless members through immigration issues and citizenship processes. At a time when migrant workers critically need our support, Joseph has been there. I’m proud to welcome him into this new role as Secretary-Treasurer, and see his incredible work continue in support of our members and future members,” said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).

Joseph Dorismond immigrated from Haiti in 1979, before moving to New York to work for the RWDSU in 1990 in the union’s mailroom, and shortly after became a union organizer. He would go on to work on a number of pivotal organizing campaigns across the U.S., including bringing a voice to poultry workers in the south, and spearheading the New York City supermarket deliverymen campaign that resulted in a multimillion dollar lawsuit settlement on behalf of exploited workers. Along with working on organizing campaigns across the country, Dorismond has also been instrumental in training the next generation of RWDSU organizers at numerous RWDSU Locals, Councils and Joint Boards.

In 2002, Dorismond was appointed to the RWDSU's Advisory Council, in 2013 he was elected as the RWDSU’s Recorder. Dorismond also serves as a Vice President of UFCW’s United Latinos and the UFCW’s Advisory Committee. In recent years, Dorismond has coordinated the union’s national organizing work. This has included directing the ground operation for the union's historic car wash campaign, which has seen the first car wash workers east of Los Angeles win union contracts. Dorismond has also directed the union’s booksellers organizing campaign, which has brought wins at independent booksellers including McNally Jackson, Goods for the Study, Greenlight Bookstore and Book Culture; as well as a recent string of wins at corporate behemoth Barnes & Noble Inc. and College Booksellers.

When the COVID-19 pandemic, which gripped the warehousing and distribution industry, coincided with a growing civil rights movement, in the wake of the George Floyd murder – Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama reached out to the RWDSU – and their fight for a union with the RWDSU has been cited as reigniting the labor movement. Dorismond helped lead a team of more than one-hundred and fifty national organizers from across the labor movement in the first ever coordinated effort to organize an Amazon warehouse, the results of which are still being litigated, as the company’s continued illegal actions throughout not one but two NLRB elections remain unresolved. The RWDSU’s work was nothing short of historic, and is seen as a playbook for how collaboration can come together on future large-scale organizing campaigns – Dorismond’s role was key to keeping all of the unions united in the effort.

Throughout his career at the RWDSU, immigrants have always been at the center: Dorismond has often put together immigration and citizenship clinics for union members. Starting in 2015, Joseph began overseeing the union’s immigration department. Through the program, Joseph travels to different regions providing legal immigration services to union members and their families. The program has helped numerous immigrants, including RWDSU and UFCW members, become U.S. citizens. In 2018, in part through Dorismond’s efforts, the RWDSU partnered with community organizations to help reunite its union members with their families who they had not seen for over twenty-years.

Dorismond continues to be active in the Haitian community, he produced a radio show for 13-years that helped educate the Haitian population across the U.S. about worker and civil rights issues. Joseph has been leading efforts to provide education, potable water, electricity and housing for some of the most severely affected families.

The RWDSU represents approximately 100,000 workers across the country in a wide range of industries including workers in retail, grocery, pharmacy, food service, food processing, cannabis, warehousing, nursing homes, nonprofits and agriculture – representing New York’s first ever unionized farmworkers, largely immigrant workers who’ve been unable to legally organize nationally.

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The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) represents 100,000 members throughout the United States. The RWDSU is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). For more information, please visit our website at www.rwdsu.org, Facebook:/RWDSU.UFCW Twitter:@RWDSU.