What is Organizing?

Organizing takes place when union ‘organizers’ educate unrepresented workers to encourage them to join a union. The education phase can touch on workplace rights, wages, benefits and various other benefits of being a union member. A union organizer is willing to visit unrepresented workers at their home or any other location outside the workplace to talk about the problems they face at work. The goal of a union organizer is to obtain a union contract between the employer and employee which ultimately provides for better working conditions. We also recruit individual employees
to work for existing union contractors.

 

Why Join a Union?

There may be no better reason to join a union other than the fact that union members’ wages are higher than non-union workers’ wages. It is not uncommon for non-union workers to earn below minimum wage, have no health insurance, and no pension. Public assistance programs funded by taxpayers make up for these below standard wages. Of course, corporations and private businesses have the fundamental right to make a profit…it is part of the American Dream. But there’s no reason some of that profit can’t be shared with the men and women who perform the actual work to produce
that profit.

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In 1935, the United States Government enacted the National Labor Relations Act which grants employees in the private sector the right to form labor organizations and bargain collectively without the interference of employers.  There is no denying that there is strength in numbers, and this strength provides a balance in power to employees when it comes to setting the terms and conditions of their employment.

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Many non-union workers don’t realize their workplace rights and protections were brought about and are maintained by virtue of labor’s struggles in the past. The 8-hour work day and 5-day work week are key examples. Additionally, in the ten states in which unions are the strongest, there is less poverty, higher household income, and more education spending than in the ten states in which unions are the weakest.

 

Organize Your Workplace:

As a worker, you have a right under federal law to form a union, select representatives of your choice and bargain collectively (as a group) with your employer. This helps balance the power that an employer has over his individual employees. Belonging to a union gives you rights under law that you do not have as an individual. Once you have formed a union, your employer must bargain with you over your wages, hours and working conditions.