United Food and Commercial Workers President Marc Perrone announced his retirement May 13. The same day, the union announced his successor, chosen in a special meeting of the international executive board: Milton Jones, previously international secretary-treasurer. Jones has been a UFCW member for 45 years, starting as a teenaged courtesy clerk at a Kroger grocery store in Alabama. He is the union’s first African American president. The executive board narrowly elected him over Mark Lauritsen, head of the meatpacking and food processing division. UFCW has 1.3 million members in the U.S.