Do You Need a Voice at Work?

Frequently asked questions pertaining to Unions?

1. What is a Union?
2. How do people form a Union?
3. Does the law protect workers joining a Union?
4. What kinds of workers are forming Unions today?
5. How do Unions help working families?
6. What has Unions accomplished for all workers?
7. What challenges face workers today?
8. What about workers in other countries?

A union is a group of working people who form an organization to win: respect on the job; better wages and benefits; more flexibility for work and family needs; a counterbalance to the unchecked power of employers; and a voice in improving the quality of their products and services.

When workers decide they want to come together to improve their jobs, they contact a union to help guide their organizing efforts to join a union. Once a majority of workers show they want a union, sometimes employers honor the workers' choice. Often, the workers must ask the government to hold an election. If the workers win their union, they negotiate a contract with the employer that spells out each party's rights and responsibilities in the workplace.

Yes. Under the law, which supports freedom of association, employers are not allowed to discriminate against or fire workers for choosing to join a union. For example, it's illegal for employers to threaten to shut down their businesses or to lay off employees or take away benefits if workers form a union. But it is not uncommon for employers to violate the law.

A wider range of people than ever before, including many more women, people of color and immigrants, are organizing and joining unions.  Doctors, attorneys, graduate students, home healthcare aides, wireless communications workers and employees of multi-service contractors are among the newer groups of working people seeking a voice at work through union representation.

Through unions, workers win better wages, benefits and a voice on the job-and good union jobs mean stronger communities.

Union workers earn 28 percent more than nonunion workers and are more likely to receive health care and pension benefits than those without a union.

In 2007, union members' median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary were $863, compared with $663 for their nonunion counterparts. Unions lead the fight today for better lives for working people on such issues as: expanding family and medical leave; restoring the full right to join unions through the Employee Free Choice Act;  improving safety and health protections: and fighting for  trade agreements that protect good jobs in America while raising living standards throughout the world. 

Today millions of workers want to join unions. The wisest employers understand that when workers form unions, their companies also benefit. But many other employers fight workers' efforts to come together by intimidating, harassing and threatening them. In response, workers are reaching out to their communities to help them exercise their freedom to improve their lives and to support passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.