RWDSU Leadership

RWDSU Leadership

Coordinating the union's activities is the RWDSU Executive Board and elected officers. Stuart Appelbaum serves as RWDSU President and Jack Wurm serves as Secretary-Treasurer.

RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum

Stuart Appelbaum became President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, UFCW, on May 1, 1998. He was reelected in 2002 and 2006. Appelbaum previously served as International Secretary-Treasurer, Vice President, Executive Board Member, Assistant to the President and Coordinator of Special Projects for the union.

Appelbaum is also an International Vice President and member of the Executive Board of the 1.4 million-member United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

He serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store International Union and Industry Benefit Funds.

Appelbaum is an officer of two global union federations: IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations) and UNI (Union Network International). He is the President of the Jewish Labor Committee. He is a Vice President of the Consortium for Worker Education.

Prior to the disaffiliation of the UFCW from the AFL-CIO, Appelbaum served as a Vice President of the national AFL-CIO and a member of the federation’s Executive Council from 1998 until 2005. He also currently serves as a vice president of the New York State AFL-CIO and the New York City Central Labor Council.

Appelbaum previously served as Chief House Counsel of the Democratic National Committee. He also previously worked for the Michigan State AFL-CIO, and as Executive Assistant to the Secretary of the State of Connecticut.

Appelbaum was elected a delegate to the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Democratic National Conventions and an alternate delegate to the 1992 Democratic National Convention.

Appelbaum is a summa cum laude graduate of Brandeis University, where he was named a Louis Dembitz Brandeis Scholar and was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. He is a member of the bar of the State of Connecticut. Appelbaum resides in New York City.

RWDSU Secretary-Treasurer Jack Wurm

Jack Wurm became the RWDSU secretary-treasurer in 2003, and was re-elected in 2006. Wurm first became a member of the RWDSU in 1969 when he began working as a driver at Butternut Bread. Over the next ten years he served as steward, chief steward and secretary-treasurer of RWDSU Local 386 in Grand Rapids, MI. In 1980 he became a business agent for the local. In 1989 he was appointed an RWDSU Representative and in 1994 he was first elected as an RWDSU vice president.

Before becoming secretary-treasurer, Wurm served the union as midwest regional director. He also helped lead contract negotiations for a number of RWDSU locals and was been responsible for coordinating the union’s participation in the annual Union Industries Show. Wurm also serves as a vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers.

For the last three Democratic Conventions, Wurm has served as a delegate from Michigan. He also served on the transition committee and Inauguration committee for Jennifer Granholm, the Governor of Michigan.