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Freedom to Join Together in Unions
Millions of workers have been able to achieve the American Dream over the last 70 years thanks to unions. The union movement led the fight for the minimum wage and the eight-hour work day, it pioneered employer-provided health care and pension plans for workers, it played a leading role securing Social Security and Medicare for seniors, and it won major advances ensuring workplace safety and workers' rights.
Today, unions are at the forefront of securing livable wages for all workers. Wages of union members are 28% higher than those of nonunion workers, on average. When you add up the much better health care and pension benefits union workers receive, the total compensation of union workers is 44% higher than that of non-union workers.
The more workers unite together in unions, the better off everyone is. But when unions are under attack, as they are today, workers face stagnant wages and declining health and retirement benefits.
To restore the American Dream we need to turn the low-paying, no-benefit jobs of today into the union wage, middle-class jobs of tomorrow. America did it once before -- jobs in the auto, steel and other manufacturing industries used to have the low-wages and poor benefits of many of today's service-sector jobs. But, too often in America when workers try to form a union their employers go to war. They undertake ruthless anti-union campaigns, hire high-priced consultants that specialize in opposing workers trying to better their lives, and even engage in illegal tactics to deny workers the fundamental right to have a voice on the job.
That's why Congress needs to enact into law the Employee Free Choice Act. Learn more about this important bill:
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