The many union advantages
People who work for a living know about the inequality of power between employers and employees. Workers want to form unions so they can have a voice on the job to improve their lives, their families and their communities.
With a union, working people win basic rights, like a say in their jobs, safety and security. Unions help remedy discrimination because union contracts ensure that all workers are treated fairly and equally. When there’s a problem on the job, workers and management can work together as equals to solve it.
Higher union wages translate into stronger tax bases for our communities, better schools and infrastructures and healthier local economies. And when workers have a real say in their hours and working conditions, that means they can spend more quality time with their families.
Unions help make sure our nation prioritizes working people’s issues: unions hold corporations accountable, make workplaces safe, protect Social Security and retirement, fight for quality health care and ensure that working people have time to spend with their families.
A union is a group of workers who come together to win respect on the job, better wages and benefits, more flexibility for work and family needs and a voice in improving the quality of their products and services. Workers in unions counter-balance the unchecked power of employers. All workers deserve to make a free and fair decision on whether to form a union.
Union Facts: The Value of Collective Voice
The union provides many benefits and support for its members. These benefits include the advantage of working under a collective bargaining agreement that brings bigger paychecks, better health and retirement benefits, more secure jobs, and safe working conditions. (Of course, what you will actually earn depends on the collective bargaining agreement of your Local Union.) For construction workers, it also means a labor-management negotiated apprenticeship program that leaves you WITH skills and WITHOUT student debt.
Better Pay and Benefits
- Union members earn better wages and benefits than workers who aren’t union members. On average, union workers’ wages are 27% higher than their nonunion counterparts.
- More than 79% of union workers have jobs that provide health insurance benefits, but less than half of nonunion workers do.
- Unions help bring more working people into the middle class. In fact, in states where people don’t have union rights, workers’ incomes are lower.
Secure Retirement
- Unionized workers are 60% more likely to have employer-provided pensions.
Productivity
- Unions help employers create a more stable, productive workforce—where workers have a say in improving their jobs.
- Unions also provide a voice on the job, which is something that money can’t buy.
