Joseph T. Hansen is an activist from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, 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

Butcher

A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...

 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

Amalgamated Meat Cutters

The Amalgamated Meat Cutters , officially the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, was a labor union that represented retail butchers and packinghouse workers.-History:...

 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

Labour movement

The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...

 front, Hansen was elected president of Union Network International

Union Network International

UNI Global Union is a global union federation for skills and services, gathering national and regional trade unions. It was launched on January 1, 2000. Its more than 900 affiliated unions in 140 countries have 20 million members...

 (UNI), an international labor organization, at its first World Congress in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 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

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 and was elected a UFCW International vice president the following year. In 1990, Hansen was appointed UFCW Pacific Region director in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 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. He was reelected international president in 2008. He was also one of the founding leaders of the new Change to Win Federation

Change to Win Federation

The Change to Win Federation is a coalition of American labor unions originally formed in 2005 as an alternative to the AFL-CIO. The coalition is associated with strong advocacy of the organizing model...

 after UFCW’s disaffiliation of the AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...

 in July 2005. In 2010, he was elected to the chairmanship of Change to Win.

Health care working group

In March 2005, Hansen was named to the 14-member Citizens' Health Care Working Group

Citizens' Health Care Working Group

The Citizens' Health Care Working Group was charged with listening to the opinions of the general public about how the government can make health care work better for all Americans. For over 15 months, the working group travelled the country, holding public meetings, and then devised a roadmap for...

. He is the only union leader to serve on the panel. The group was created by the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

, with the goal of unifying the American people on health care issues and communicating concerns to lawmakers.