The Schneider Employees' Association (SEA) was established in 1945 after workers at the Schneider Foods plant voted to be represented by an internal employee association. At the time United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) was also vying to represent the employees. Prior to the employee association being established, Schneider Foods was well known for its positive relationship with its employees and benefits including free meals, sick leave, and employee redistribution to help ensure everyone had a fair number of hours. The history of the SEA indicates that the Committee for Industrial Organizations (CIO) specifically targeted Schneider Foods for unionization because of this relationship, believing that if they could organize here where workers had an amiable relationship with their management, they would be able to organize anywhere. A group of 12 workers at Schneider Foods felt that an internal employee association would be better able to understand the needs of the workers than an outside organization and as such they drafted a proposed constitution and elected officers.

The original executive consisted of John Albrecht (president), Edwin Yanke (vice-president), Edwin Hurlbut (secretary) and Cecil James (treasurer). This employee association was sanctioned by the management and they began recruiting members. Almost one year after the SEA was established, workers at the plant voted to elect the SEA as the legal bargaining unit and the first meeting was held December 10, 1945. The first collective agreement was signed on September 23, 1946 granting employees a 12 cent per hour raise. In June of 1947 a hospital, medical and sick leave benefit plan was agreed to that covered employees as well as their families and in 1949 an employee pension plan was arranged. By 1956 there was some disagreement among employees as to whether the SEA was still the best choice, or if they should be represented by the United Packinghouse and Commercial Workers of America (UFCWA). A vote on April 4, 1956 saw the SEA continue to represent employees and negotiate a new two year agreement. Throughout the next few decades the agreement would be updated, and benefits changed, to keep in line with the changing needs of the employees, including equal pay for women workers in 1971.

During the mid 20th century there were more changes at the plant and to the agreements, including covering employees in Ayr, Wellesley, Thunder Bay, Manitoba, and Alberta. Throughout the years there was only one strike, in 1988, and relations between the employees and the company remained amiable through many changes in ownership after the Schneider family sold the company in 1997. In 2014 the Schneider Foods plant in Kitchener closed for good and the SEA ended after almost 70 years.

The Schneider family were white settlers of what is now Kitchener, Ontario. Members of the family are the descendants of Johann Christoph Schneider, who was born in Germany, in Unteröwisheim, Baden, on August 27, 1831. His father, a farmer, was also Johann Christoph Schneider; his mother was Margarethe Elizabeth Zoller. He left Germany in 1847 when he was sixteen years old and settled in Berlin, Ontario, where a substantial German settlement already existed. He worked as a carpenter and later as a mechanic, and by 1858 was a building contractor. He married Anna Elizabeth Metz on April 26, 1857. They had seven children, of whom John Metz Schneider, founder of the meat packing firm later known as the Schneider Corp., was the first. Johann Christoph died in December 20, 1900. He, along with his descendants, played active roles in business, politics, and the cultural and social life of what is today the Region of Waterloo.

Albert Carl Schneider was born on September 26, 1877 to parents Johann Christoph and Anna Schneider. He married Emma Gerbig on February 27, 1901. Together they had four children: Clarence Carl, Maude Elizabeth, Mabel, and Florence Irene. Schneider died of pulmonary tuberculosis on August 30, 1920 and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Alberta Schneider was born on October 8, 1901 to parents Heinrich Metz and Louise Schneider. She married a widower named Clarence Edwin Traeder with whom she moved to Wisconsin with from 1956-1960. After that, they resided in Phoenix, Arizona.

Anna Elizabeth Schneider was born on August 5 1899 to parents Heinrich Metz and Louise Schneider. She died at infancy due to Inflammatory Croup on October 28, 1900.

Charles Alexander Schneider was born on November 17, 1884, the first child of John Metz and Helena (nee Ahrens) Schneider. He began working with his father at a young age and worked at one point in a hardware store to gain retail experience. He was eventually named a director of the J.M. Schneiders, Ltd., where he was responsible for the management of the shipping department. "Schneider married Georgina Allendorf in 1908, and they had one daughter: Lorraine Katharine (1910-1993).

Outside of work Schneider was interested in the promotion of amateur sports. Schneider sponsored minor league baseball teams and was interested in fish and game conservation. He was a member of the Knights of Pythias and was a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd. In his later hears he became a hobby farmer with a farm “The Forest View” near Blair. He died June 24, 1945, in Kitchener, at his 51 Schneider Avenue home and was buried at Woodland Cemetery.

David Frederick was born March 25, 1907 to Heinrich Metz and Louisa Lehnen in Berlin, now Kitchener, Ontario. He was the Director and Purchasing Manager of the J.M. Schneider Ltd., for 41 years. He married Dorothy F. Kyle on December 30, 1937, with whom he had one daughter, Lynne. Schneider died February 4, 1968 and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Ella Daniels Schneider was born on March 1890 to parents Rev. Eugene Davidson and Ella Graves Daniels in Indianapolis, Indiana. She immigrated to Canada in 1909 where she worked as a teacher. She married Fredrick Henry Schneider with whom she had two kids; Jean May and Fredrick Paul. She died November 4, 1959.

Emil John Schneider was the son of Heinrich Metz and Louisa Lehnen. He was born on August 22, 1898 in Berlin, now Kitchener, Ontario. He married Pearl Katherine Wing with whom he had three children: John, Ruth, and Anne. He worked for J.M. Schneider Inc. until his retirement in 1969 and was a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd. He died June 24, 1976 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Emma Gerbig Schneider was born in 1879 to parents George and Catherine Gerbig. She married Albert Carl in 1901 with whom she had four children with; Clarence, Maudie, Mabel, and Florence.

Ethel May Lapsley was born in Galt, Ontario (now Cambridge) on March 31, 1894 to William Henry and Clara Sophia Lapsley. She was married to Norman Christoph, owner of J.M. Schneider’s Ltd., with whom she had three children: Herbert John, Howard George, and Brita. She was an active member of the Canadian Red Cross, volunteering with the organization for 60 years. Schneider died at Victoria Place in Kitchener on September 23, 1988 and was buried at Woodland Cemetery.

Fredrick Henry was born on August 1, 1890 in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener) to John M. and Helena Schneider. He attended public school in Berlin followed by one year at Euler's Business College, entering the family business at the age of sixteen. By 1907 he was serving as a clerk and meat cutter in the family's retail store. He would go on to become the second president of the company, a position he held from 1943 to 1963. He was also Chairman of the Board of Directors of J.M. Schneider Ltd. He organized the first sales staff and promoted the first insurance and pension plans for J.M. Schneider employees. Fredrick and his brother Norman, decided to abandon the plant their father had begun on Courtland Avenue and constructed a new plant on Courtland Avenue East.

In the community, Frederick Henry served on the Board of Directors of both the Waterloo Trust and Savings Co. and the Equitable Life Insurance of Canada. He was elected president of the Meat Packers Council of Canada three times. He served on the Municipal Council of Kitchener as well as Chairman of the Public School Board.

Schneider married Ella Eugenia Daniels on May 12, 1914 and together they had two children: Jean May and Frederick Paul. Frederick H. Schneider died November 9, 1967 and was buried at Woodland Cemetery in Kitchener.

Fred Paul Schneider was born in Kitchener, Ontario on March 14, 1926 to parents Frederick Henry and Ella Daniels Schneider. He attended Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate Institute, graduated in 1947 from McMaster University with a B.A., and in 1949 from the University of Toronto with a Masters of Commerce degree. He married Frances Jean Cressman on July 11, 1953 with whom he had five children: Peter Frederick, Daniel John, Anne Cecile, Margaret Ella, and Thomas Ervin.

Schneider joined J.M. Schneider Ltd. in 1949 working in Cost Accounting and went on to hold a number of positions: By-Products Manager (1961), Vice-President (1963), Executive Vice-president (1967), President (1968), Chief Executive Officer (1969) and Chairman of the Board (1970). He retired from the company in 1989 as one of the last Schneider family members to run the company, but carried on as a member of the Board of the Directors. He first joined the Board in 1952 and became Chairman in 1991, a position he held until retiring in 1992.

Over the course of his career served as president of the Canadian Meat Council and as president of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra Association, Inc. During the 1960's he was a trustee of the Board of Education, and from 1978-1984 was a Director of the Center in the Square. He was also a member of MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Association), an association which aids third world countries. An environmentalist, Schneider was also responsible for planning thousands of trees and actively supported land stewardship efforts in the region.

Schneider died at home in Wilmot Township on September 19, 2011. He was cremated and interred at Woodland Cemetery in Kitchener.

Georgina Allendorf was born on February 16, 1887 to parents Conrad and Magdalena Allendorf. She was the eighth of fourteen children and came from a family of wagon makers. She married Charles Alexander Schneider on October 26, 1862 with whom she had one daughter: Lorraine Katharine. Schneider died August 15,1959 in Kitchener and was buried at Woodland Cemetery.

Heinrich Metz Schneider born on September 22, 1865 to parents Johann Christoph and Anna Schneider. He was the second of five children. He married Louisa Lehnen on June 10, 1896 with whom he has five children with; Edith, Emil, Anna, David and Alberta. He died February 23, 1951.

Helena Schneider was community builder and volunteer born in Berlin (no Kitchener) Ontario on November 1, 1859 to parents Charles Andrew Ahrens and Charlotte Henrietta Roth at the family home on Queen Street. Helena married John Metz Schneider of Berlin on November 8th, 1883. The couple had five children: Charles Alexander; Herbert John; Norman Christoph; Frederick Henry and Emma Louise. John was the founder of J.M. Schneider Limited; he began making and selling sausages around 1890 from their home after an injury prohibited him from working at his job at a button factory.

Helena was an active member of the Good Shepherd church, the Ladies Auxiliary and of the Independent Dorcas Society and the Kitchener Red Cross. She served for a number of years on the Kitchener Orphanage Board, and was active in relief work, particularly during the depression years. Helena died on November 3rd, 1944 and is entombed at Woodland Cemetery, Kitchener with her husband who died in 1942.

Herbert John Schneider was born July 5, 1926 in Kitchener, Ontario to Norman and Ethel Schneider. Educated in local public schools he graduated from the Ontario Agricultural College in 1949 with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture. He was married to Betty Ruppel on October 6, 1949 with whom he four children: Gretchen Ann, Eric Norman, Nancy Beth, and Michael Kurt.

Schneider joined J.M. Schneider Inc. in 1948 holding the positions of Production Supervisor and Plant Superintendent, and becoming Vice-President of Personnel and Public Relations, Vice-President and Vice Chairman of Schneider Corporation. He jointed the Board of Directors in 1952 and served as a member until 1997 when he retired as Chairman.

Over the course of his career he was Chairman of the Public Affairs and Marketing Committee of the Canadian Meat Council and a trustee of the National Institute of Nutrition. He was served as councillor for Waterloo Township, member of the Waterloo County Area Planning Board, Pine Grove Community Association, the K-W YMCA Board of Directors, the Vice-President of K-W Oktoberfest, and Chairman of the Town and Country Dinner. He has also served as President of the Board of Directors of the Church of the Good Shepherd (Swedenborgian).

Schneider died suddenly on January 29, 2006.

Herbert John was born October 20, 1886 to parents John Metz Schneider and Helena Ahrens. He died of typhoid fever on October 11, 1905 after contracting the infection two weeks prior.

Howard George was born on February 18, 1929 to parents Norman and Ethel Schneider. He was married to Betty Louise Becker with whom he had six children with; Gregory, Pamela, Christopher, Philip, James, and Stephen. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Schneider Inc. since 1957. He was also the Director of Research and Development for the company and a member of the Technical Research Committee of the Canadian Meat Council. He died on March 28, 1988 and was buried at Woodland Cemetery in Kitchener.

John Metz Schneider was a business owner and community builder. The first child of Christoph and Anna Schneider, he was born in Berlin (later Kitchener) on February 17, 1859. He grew up on the family farm but moved into Berlin as a young man to find work in the Dominion Button Works. It was there that he met Helena Ahrens, and they were married on November 8, 1883 at the Ahrens home in Berlin, Ontario. Together they had five children: Charles Alexander, Herbert John, Norman Christoph, Frederick Henry and Emma Louise.

An accident at Dominion Button Works in 1886 kept J.M. home for an extended period. His future as the founder of a major food processing company started with his efforts at this time to support his family. He and his family began to make sausages at home and J.M. sold them, door to door, even after he returned to work at the button factory. The success of this enterprise encouraged him to become a full time butcher, and in 1890 he built his own plant and shop on Courtland Avenue in Berlin . J.M. Schneider Limited became one of the most important industries in Kitchener, known around the world, its reputation based on J.M. Schneider’s personal virtues of thrift, honesty, quality and equality.

Beyond his business pursuits, Schneider was a trustee of the Church of the Good Shepherd, sang in the choir and helped lay the cornerstone of the new church in 1935. He was a member of the Board of Trade, was an alderman in 1905-1907, sponsored radio broadcasts of the Y.M.C.A. choir, and in 1938 started the Schneider Male Chorus.

J.M. died February 23, 1942 and was entombed at Woodland Cemetery, Kitchener.

Johann Christoph Schneider was born in Germany, in Unteröwisheim, Baden, on August 27, 1831. His father, a farmer, was also Johann Christoph Schneider; his mother was Margarethe Elizabeth Zoller. He left Germany in 1847 when he was sixteen years old and settled in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, where a substantial German settlement already existed. He worked as a carpenter and later as a mechanic, and by 1858 was a building contractor. He married Anna Elizabeth Metz on April 26, 1857 and started married life in a house on what is now College St. in Kitchener. Together they had seven children, of whom John Metz Schneider was the first.

In 1860 Schneider purchased a 100-acre farm in what is now the Victoria/Lawrence St. area of Kitchener, cleared the land and spent the next thirty-seven years as a farmer. He contributed to the growth of Berlin as a builder, helping to construct buildings such as the Waterloo County Court House and the Breithaupt tanneries. He was also a founding member of the Church of the New Jerusalem, a Swedenborgian congregation. He died December 20, 1900 and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Joseph E. Schneider (1810-1880) and wife Sarah Shantz (1816-1881) had ten children together, nine of whom survived into adulthood and were raised on the original property settled by Joseph Schneider. The children were: Isaac (1834-1835), Barbara (1837-1923), David Bechtel (1840-1928), Samuel Bechtel (1842-1912), Maria (1844-1925), Louisa (1847-1932), Lydia Shantz (1849-1930), Magdelena (1851-1880), Sarah (1854-1887) and Hannah (1857-1920). (From Ancestry and material in GA 249).

Mabel Schneider was born on February 22, 1904 to parents Albert Carl and Emma Schneider. She was the third out of four children. She died at the age of 24 from pulmonary tuberculosis. She was still single at the time of death on July 27, 1928.

Norman Christoph Schneider was born in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener) on December 9, 1888, the third son of John Metz and Helena Ahrens. He was an engineer and worked from 1905-1910 at Tuerk Tool and Engine company, before joining J.M. Schneider Inc. as a stationary engineer. Over the course of his time with the company he served as company vice-president, president, chairman of the board and as a director, retiring in 1976. He was married to Ethel May Lapsley with whom he had three children: Herbert John, Howard George and Brita.

Beyond his work at Schneider's he served with the 118th Battalion, during the First World War, and served as a Member of Parliament for the riding of North Waterloo from 1952-1958. He won a by-election in 1952, was re-elected in 1953 and 1956, but was defeated in 1958 by Conservative O.W. Weichel. He participated actively in community affairs, serving with the Kitchener Young Men's Club, the Red Cross, the Kitchener Rotary Club, Chamber of Commerce, Federated Charities, Salvation Army, Children's Aid, YWCA, University of Waterloo, St. Mary's Hospital, Doon Pioneer Village, K-W High School Board, Kitchener Citizen's Fire Prevention Committee, Waterloo Township Plowman's Association, Grand River Valley Conservation Commission, Kitchener Downtown Urban Renewal Development Committee, the Schneider Male Choir, and as a director of the Economical Mutual Insurance Co. He was a lifelong member of the Church of the Good Shepherd (Swedenborgian) and served for twenty-five years as Sunday school superintendent and member of the Board of Directors.

Schneider was an aviation enthusiast influencing the development of related amenities in the Region of Waterloo. He was involved in establishing the Kitchener-Waterloo Airport on Lexington Road in Waterloo in 1930 and assisted with the selection of the site of the Waterloo-Wellington Airport in Breslau, Ontario. He served on the airport commission from its founding in 1946 until 1971 and in 1973 the new terminal building was named in his honour. Schneider became an avid skier in his 40's and was a founding member of the Chicopee Ski Club. He also had an interest in motorcycles and automobiles resulting in the 1956 of a LeRoy car built in Kitchener in 1899, which he subsequently donated to Doon Pioneer Village. Finally, an active amateur photographer, he covered the Olympics in Berlin for The Record and in 1929 was the official movie photographer for Kitchener when the King and Queen visited the city.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University) in 1966 and a Centennial medal in 1967 on the occasion of Canada's 100th birthday.

Schneider died August 26, 1985 at his home in Kitchener and was buried at Woodland Cemetery.

Pearl Wing was born April 1898 in Shipka, Ontario, near Grand Bend. She married Emil John Henry Schneider and together they had three children: John, Ruth and Anne. She attended the Church of the Good Shepherd and was a one time member of the Women's Auxiliary. She died December 2, 1987 in St. Jacobs, Ontario and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Wilhelm Christoph Schneider was born on September 30, 1867 to parents Johann Christoph and Anna Schneider. He married Emma Kennedy, with whom he had nine children: Edwin, Alvin, Walter, Alfred, Carl, Lenore, Edna, Eva, and Isabelle. In 1901 he was a farmer and then in 1911 he went into the business of tannery. He died at his Kitchener home on February 10, 1952.

Jemima Bray Schofield was born September 7, 1816 in Deighton, Yorkshire, England to George and Ann (nee Preston) Bray. She married John Schofield, a tailor, on March 4, 1843 in Leeds, England. Jemima died in the same city in 1866, where she was buried on February 8, 1866.

Margaret Schreiter was "Camp Mother" at Camp Tinawatawa on Paradise Lake near Waterloo, Ontario between 1952 and 1959.

Jules Schwerin was a film director.

Duncan Campbell Scott was born on August 2, 1862. He was a Canadian bureaucrat, poet and prose writer. He served as the deputy superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932. In this position, Scott advocated for the assimilation of Indigenous peoples of Canada. In the 21st century, Scott's work in the Department of Indian Affairs has been high scrutinized and classed as cultural genocide.

Scott died on December 19, 1947.

Octavius Augustus Seagram and his wife, Amelia Stiles, immigrated to Canada from Wiltshire, England in 1837. They purchased two farms and a tavern in Fisher's Mills, near Galt (now Cambridge, Ontario). The couple had two sons, Joseph Emm, born in 1841, and Edward Frowde, born in 1842. These boys were orphaned in their teens, and lived for six years at Dr. Tassie's boarding school in Galt.

After spending a year at business college in Buffalo, New York, Joseph Seagram returned to Canada, where he worked as a bookkeeper and manager at various mills in Galt and Stratford. In 1864 he went to work for William Hespeler at the Granite Mills in Waterloo, which was to be the foundation of his career as a distiller. In 1869 he married Stephanie Urbs, daughter of Jacob Hespeler's sister Maria, thus connecting himself with some of the most prominent families in the area, such as the Warnocks and Hespelers. In 1850 Adam Warnock, a merchant in Galt, had married Joseph Seagram's wife's aunt, Stephanie Hespeler. His wife's sister Marie had married Canon Bland. Joseph Emm Seagram and his wife Stephanie had five children who lived past infancy. Their four sons were Edward Frowde, 1873-1937, Joseph Hamilton, 1875-195-?, Norman, 1879-1963, and Thomas William, 1887-1965. Their only daughter was Blanche Alexandrine (Adine), 1871-1919, who married G.H. Bowlby, M.D. in 1894.

Joseph Emm Seagram's passion was horse racing. A wealthy man, Seagram advanced horse racing in Canada, establishing it as a popular hobby among the wealthy elite. He imported high-quality breeding stock from the United States and Britain. Horses from the Seagram stables were Queen's Plate Winners for eight consecutive years, beginning in 1891. His horses achieved fifteen plate wins in all. His enthusiasm was shared by his son Edward Frowde and grandson Joseph Edward Frowde who continued the family tradition to the 1970's.

Also active in politics, Joseph Emm Seagram was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Waterloo North during the Liberal years of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. He participated in a variety of local organizations, becoming an influential and respected member of the community. His sons and grandsons continued the tradition of strong local participation in business and civic life, as well as displaying a keen interest in and support of sports, ranging from golf to football to cycling.