In areas where a high number of workers belong to labor unions, the number of people in the middle class increases. In places like Mesa County where there are few and weak unions, wages stay low and more people live in poverty.
Re-posting in honor of Labor Day, 2022. Join a union. Unions have achieved great things for workers, and there’s much more strength in numbers:
Did you know that labor unions made the following 36 things possible?
- Weekends off work
- All of your breaks at work, including your lunch breaks
- Paid vacation
- Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
- Sick leave
- Social Security
- Minimum wage
- Civil Rights Act, Title VII, which prohibits employer discrimination
- 8-hour work day
- Overtime pay
- Child labor laws
- Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)
- The 40-hour work week
- Workers’ compensation (workers’ comp)
- Unemployment insurance
- Pensions
- Workplace safety standards and regulations
- Employer health care insurance
- Collective bargaining rights for employees
- Wrongful termination laws
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA)
- Whistleblower protection laws
- Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA), which prohibits employers from using a lie detector test on an employee
- Veteran’s Employment and Training Services (VETS)
- Compensation increases and evaluations (raises)
- Sexual harassment laws
- Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public.
- Holiday pay
- Employer dental, life, and vision insurance
- Privacy rights
- Pregnancy and parental leave
- Military leave
- The right to strike
- Public education for children
- Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011, which require employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work
- Laws ending sweatshops in the United States
If you like all these things, then thank American labor unions and consider joining one to help boost local Mesa County’s dismal wages and benefits.
[Credit for the list goes to the ALF-CIO website, Union Plus]