Organize

If you don't have a union in your workplace, you don't have guaranteed wages, health benefits or a secure pension. You are an "at-will" employee. You check your rights at the door, and your employer can fire you or change your conditions of employment at any time and for almost any reason. But you - and the people you work with - can change this. It is your legal right!
There are real advantages to having a union for you as an individual and for society in general. By forming a union with your co-workers, together you will have the strength to negotiate a legally binding contract with your employer that includes better wages, affordable health care, a secure retirement and a safer workplace. Consider:

• Better wages: Wages of union members are, on average, 27% higher than those of nonunion workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2004, union workers were paid $781 a week, but nonunion workers only got paid $612 a week. While all unions workers are better off than nonunion workers, women and minorities are especially so:
  • Women in unions earn an extra $170 a week - $9,000 more a year.
  • African Americans in unions earn an extra $150 a week - $8,000 more a year.
  • Latinos in unions earn an extra $225 a week - $11,650 more a year.
• Better health care: 81% of union workers have job-related health coverage, while only 50% of non-union workers do. Union families pay 43% less for family coverage than nonunion families - that's a savings of $1,000 a year.
• Better pensions: 72% of union workers have a guaranteed, defined benefit pension, compared to only 15% of nonunion workers.

And the more union members there are in this country, the better off everyone is. Throughout our history, when unions are strong, wages go up, health care coverage improves and pensions are strengthened. When unions are under attack, as they are today, we are all in danger - our jobs, our communities and our families.

For more information on how to form a union at you workplace, click on General Information.

Local 888 actively follows the advice of "Don't mourn, organize, by having on-going organizing campaigns throughout the year. We participate on a national level with our International Campaigns and we run local campaigns as well. For more information on how to organize a union, please contact the Organizing Department at 1(800) 223-1503.