I know why the UCFW membership has fallen...I used work at Ames, Bradlee’s and Calder and I had to join the union to work there... all 3 are out of business. Ames at one time was behind Kmart, Target and WalMart in terms of stores.
I worked at a UFCW grocery store. I was offered a assistant manager position. I declined. We had dept. managers who were completely incapable of doing their job. We had a deli manager who couldn’t cook a rotisserie chicken, a bakery manager who couldn’t decorate a cake who once told a customer to go across the street to our competitor. The latter was suspended for a week for that, but got their normal pay after they filed a grievance.