Leather Workers' International Union of America

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The Leather Workers' International Union of America (LWU) was a union for leather industry workers in the United States and Canada. It began on January 14, 1955, as the Leather Workers' Organizing Committee. Its early members came from former locals of the International Fur and Leather Workers' Union, which had opposed merging into the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen. On November 2, it was chartered by the Congress of Industrial Organizations as the Leather Workers' International Union. In December 1955, it joined the newly formed AFL-CIO, and by 1957 it had 5,743 members. Membership dropped to 2,110 in 1980, and on February 3, 1992, it merged into the Office and Professional Employees' International Union (OPEIU).