Yves here. This article explains how unions, even in an era of weak bargaining rights, can protect wages and benefits, decent health care, and good levels of sick and vacation days, which make the difference between spending and being able to save and organize. One of my brothers who was a member of the union all his working life and also took every opportunity to get double and triple overtime, built himself a net worth of seven figures, not by appreciating house prices (prices in his area have been close to nowhere for decades, but by being careful to use and invest money well.
It is also rarely acknowledged that unions help white-collar workers. Managers need to maintain social distance between hourly and salaried employees. Many of the goals unions have won, such as cost-of-living adjustments and employer contributions to 401(k)s, will often be extended to the supervisory and management levels.
By Roxanne D. Brown, international president of the United Steelworkers Union (USW). Produced by Independent Media Institute
Marcelo Assis remembers how his family came to the United States some 35 years ago, “poor as hell”—but convinced that America offered a way forward that he could never find in his native Brazil or anywhere else.
The years that followed came with bad circumstances, when Marcelo worked as a combat medic in the Army and was disillusioned by a low-paying non-union job that held him back instead of helping him move forward.
But Marcelo ended up getting successive union jobs that put him in the middle class and kept him there. Just as he clearly remembers his arrival in this country, Marcelo clearly remembers a moment later when he looked around his home he had just bought, thought about the good life he gave his family, and realized for the first time that he had arrived.
“This is the American dream,” he said to himself.
Marcelo’s experience shows how unions pave the way for a brighter future. That’s true even now—a time when most working people feel the American dream is out of reach because of growing economic inequality, rising costs, and the apathy of the selfish rich.
Overall, nearly 70 percent of Americans no longer see a country that promises travel or financial security to those who work hard and struggle to get ahead, according to a January 2024 ABC News/Ipsos poll.
A separate poll, conducted in conjunction with the nation’s 250th birthday by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that half of respondents have lost faith in the American dream. Many see America as working for the rich, not for people like them.
But Marcelo, president of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 12000 and a mechanic at Southern Connecticut Gas, will be the first to say it doesn’t have to be this way. After helping him achieve the American dream, the union now enables him to hold on to it.
The USW contract provides Marcelo with the good wages he needs to get rid of Donald Trump’s inflationary economy, including runaway costs for groceries, utilities, and home insurance. It gives him retirement security as Republicans threaten to cut off senior citizen lines.
The contract delivers high-quality, employer-sponsored health care, while many Americans today have no choice but to postpone doctor visits or treatment due to rising costs.
“There is the stability of knowing that you have benefits,” said Marcelo about the contract, which he discussed with his colleagues. “You don’t have to worry.”
All this is good. But it is not unique.
Union members across the country make significantly more money than their non-union peers. They are also more likely to have family leave, paid time off, and work-life balance. All of this includes garaged cars, summer vacations, and kids’ sports leagues, along with all the other fun things that make life fun.
This is what independence looks like. Marcelo simply calls it “union life.”
There is more.
Because unions provide a voice on wages, safety, and other issues, they empower workers at a time when an overwhelming sense of powerlessness plagues many other Americans.
Union members also build a bond that goes beyond the store. Everyone is looking out for everyone else, and that is a powerful key to the epidemic of loneliness and isolation currently plaguing the country.
Even better, this shared ownership encourages union members to fight together for the greater good and take an ownership role in their communities, often in the form of volunteer work and political advocacy done by Local 12000 members.
“Doing it together makes it easier to climb than doing it alone,” Marcelo said of the solidarity of his hundreds of colleagues.
The message is that the growing number of workers are tired of working their tails off, and falling behind while the rich get richer.
Polls show record levels of support for unions, and workers across the country are joining them to take the future into their own hands.
The American dream endures. We just have to come together to find it.
