Mar 2, 2016 | Departments, Home, Organizing |
Unions are about a simple proposition: By joining together, working women and men gain strength in numbers so they can have a voice at work in what they care about. They negotiate a contract with their employer for things like a fair and safe workplace, better wages, a secure retirement and family-friendly policies such as paid sick leave and scheduling hours. They have a voice in how their jobs get done, creating a more stable, productive workforce that provides better services and products.
Earn More, Live Better
Union members earn better wages and benefits than workers who aren’t union members. On average, union workers’ wages are 28 percent higher than their nonunion counterparts.
While only 19 percent of nonunion workers have guaranteed pensions, fully 78 percent of union workers do.
More than 84 percent of union workers have jobs that provide health insurance benefits, but only 64 percent of nonunion workers do. Unions help employers create a more stable, productive workforce—where workers have a say in improving their jobs.
Unions help bring workers out of poverty and into the middle class. In fact, in states where workers don’t have union rights, workers’ incomes are lower.
Mar 2, 2016 | Departments, Home, Organizing |
DL141 Update: April 29, 2016
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today announced it petitioned the National Mediation Board (NMB), the federal agency that oversees union elections in the airline and railroad industries, to conduct a representation election for approximately 300 cargo workers employed by SM Cargo in Houston, TX.
“We want to form a union so we will have the protections of a union contract and no longer be ‘at will’ employees and be fired at any time for any reason,” said Cargo Agent Doug Moore. “With an IAM contract we will be able to finally have the decent wages and benefits that we can live on.”
“I want these brave workers to know that the IAM is 100 percent behind them in their effort to form a union and achieve the justice on the job they deserve,” said General Vice President Sito Pantoja. “The IAM will do all in its power to bring these sisters and brothers into the Machinists family.”
IAM representatives delivered the election authorization cards (a-cards) and petition to the NMB this morning. The federal agency will now determine if at least 50 percent of the work group submitted a-cards. If so, the NMB will schedule the election.
It is important to emphasize that is against federal law for SM Cargo management to know who did or did not sign an a-card. It is also important to note that SM Cargo management is prohibited by federal law from knowing how a worker casts his or her vote in a union representation election.
