Kamloops, B.C. – September 6, 2018 – The UFCW Local 1518 scholarship deadline for the Retail Meat Cutting program at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) is quickly approaching.

Every year, through this exciting program and partnership with TRU, UFCW 1518 offers members in British Columbia with the opportunity to enhance their butchery skills or to carve out a new career in this ancient trade and field, where upwards of six percent growth is predicted for the future. 

The meat cutting scholarship covers full tuition and partial living expenses for UFCW 1518 members attending the nine-month TRU Retail Meat Cutting Program.

The TRU program touches on charcuterie, and other key elements of the trade, including:

• safety and sanitation
• beef, veal, lamb, pork, and poultry processing
• product identification and nomenclature
• value added processing
• fresh, smoked and cured sausage
• meat nutrition and cooking
• customer service and employment skills

The UFCW’s history with the meat industry goes back more than 120 years, starting in 1896 when a group of independent butchers’ unions met in New York state to start the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen, or the AMC for short. The AMC became an international union a few years later when a group of retail butchers in Stratford, Ontario received the AMC’s first charter for Canada.

The AMC merged with the United Packinghouse Workers (UPWA) in 1968, thereby unifying industrial butchers across North America. The AMC later merged with the Retail Clerks (RCIU) in 1979 to create the UFCW.

Today, there are more than 6,000 retail meat cutters, or retail butchers, across Canada, with most of them working as proud members of the UFCW.

Retail Meat Cutter is a recognized and certified trade in B.C., as well as Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec.

The deadline for the Retail Meat Program Scholarship at Thompson Rivers University is September 15, and the program is reserved for members of UFCW 1518. To find out more about this exciting opportunity, check out the UFCW 1518 scholarship page, and to get the full story on the many union scholarships available to UFCW Canada members, be sure to visit ufcw.ca.