It was created as a result of a merger between Canadian locals of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters (AMC) and the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA).
In 1979, it merged with the Retail Clerks International Union (RCIU) along with its American counterpart (which had maintained the AMC name) to form the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).
The CFAW leadership had a history in the Canadian social-democratic political tradition of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the New Democratic Party (NDP), as well as the efforts toward social change in Québec's Quiet Revolution.
As a result, attempts were made to target areas of the industry known for difficult working and organizing conditions, where unionization would have the most socially transformative effect.
The workers had been organizing since the late 1960s with the support of Father Desmond McGrath (a Catholic parish priest) and Richard Cashin (a former Liberal MP).
[6] From the start, the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) raised concerns about the OMIP program for undermining private sector wages, while the CFAW sought assurances that the Guelph abattoir would not operate if a strike was declared at a "parent industry" company.
The program was fraught with management issues, as it was soon found that prisoners were concentrated among the least desirable abattoir jobs, and were not clearly represented in the in-house employee council at the company.
As a result, the union was certified, and noted as being the "first bargaining unit in Canada and possibly North America to represent both inmate and civilian employees.