A Look at How Unions Lift Workers

[TexasTowelie]

Unions aren’t just about strikes and politics—the stories the media covers. There’s a big story the media usually misses about unions: how, concretely, they improve workers’ lives.


More than 14 million workers across the United States—carpenters, steelworkers, nurses, teachers, truck drivers, and many others—are union members, but rarely does one read how unions have improved workers’ jobs and lives.

There are plenty of stories about weeks-long strikes, hard-fought unionization drives, unions’ role in political campaigns, and unions fighting to raise the minimum wage. Perhaps it’s considered too prosaic, but there are hardly any stories that examine in depth how belonging to a union or joining a union has changed workers’ lives and improved things for their families.

This report takes a look at five workers—a construction worker, a charter school teacher, a barista, a forklift operator at a warehouse, and a hospital aide—and documents how belonging to a union has lifted those workers, has improved their pay and benefits, and given them a far stronger voice at work.

Read more: https://prospect.org/labor/look-at-how-unions-lift-workers/
(American Prospect)

[Midnight Writer]

1. I had a string of non-union jobs and one union job. The union job lasted 32 years.

Better pay than most folks in my area, paid vacation time, paid sick leave, health insurance, life insurance, 401k with employer match, a safety committee made up of employees and management, plus the right to file a grievance and get representation if I get screwed over on the job.

I'm not well educated and had little experience in the field, but the union trained me and I got really good at my job. I was on a dead-end path and didn't have a pot to piss in. The union turned me into a very productive worker and I was able to retire with a pension and to keep my health insurance (though I now pay half the premium), own a home free of a mortgage, and am confident that my retirement will be comfortable, though not lavish.

I don't know where I would be today without that union job. If you can join a union, do it.

[demosincebirth]

2. Amen to you Brother. Same here. The History of Labor should be mandatory in schools.

[appalachiablue]

3. K/R Unions, democracy in the workplace.