Over the last 70 years, unions have led the fight for the minimum wage and the eight-hour work day; championed employer-paid health care and pension plans for workers; played a leading role securing Social Security and Medicare for seniors; and won major advances ensuring workplace safety and workers’ rights.

Unions are just as important today in securing livable wages and benefits. Wages of union members are almost 30 percent higher than those of nonunion workers. And when you include 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.

So it’s no wonder that nearly 60 million workers in America say that would join a union if they could. When given the option, workers want a stable job where they can earn enough to support a family, buy a home, send their children to college, and save for retirement.

The more workers unite together in unions, the better off everyone is. During contract negotiations, you know that having more union workers in your industry means more power at the bargaining table with your employer. Building this worker power in unions is the best way to raise the standard for wages and benefits for all workers.

But when unions are under attack, as they are today, workers face stagnant wages and declining health and retirement benefits.

Good jobs are vanishing, and health care coverage and retirement security are slipping out of reach. The American dream is slipping away from our children’s reach. For the first time in history, Americans believe their children will be worse off financially than they are.

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. Right now, the power employers have over workers is completely out of hand, and the NLRB doesn’t exercise real strength to protect workers or to level the playing field. Workers deserve the chance to make choices on the job that will help them reach their dreams and give their children a better life.

That’s why Congress needs to create a system that respects workers and revives this country’s strong middle class. It needs a system that restores the balance between workers and employers—a system built on fairness, openness and the freedom for workers to make their own choices.

Employee Free Choice would do just that. It would protect the ability of workers to come together and form unions to bargain for better wages and benefits and safer working conditions. Employee Free Choice would protect working families by bolstering financial equality and maintaining a strong middle class. We must support Employee Free Choice because all workers deserve the best chance to reach the American Dream.

UFCW shop stewards play a big role in cultivating unity and driving contract negotiations that exhibit strength, determination, and solidarity “We’re much more powerful when we have thousands of us together,” says Michael Rasmusson a shop steward at the Hormel plant represented by Local 6 in Algona, Iowa. As fellow Hormel steward, Mark Coufal, of Local 22 in Fremont, Nebraska notes, “The company negotiates from a position of power, and we need to do the same thing. The more members we have backing us, the better chance we have in getting a good contract.”
There’s a lot at stake: wages, health benefits, retiree health benefits, and health and safety issues. Affordable health insurance, in particular, is a big concern. “When people have families, it’s important to have insurance at an affordable rate. If people are paying for it out of their pockets, it makes it hard to put bread on the table, shoes on their kids’ feet, and pay college tuitions,” says Richard Chinander, chief steward from Local 9.
Also on the minds of many of the Hormel stewards is the crucial issue of the company’s determination to see that more and more of its plants arenon-union.
“By Hormel operating union plants as well as non-union plants, they can take the work out of a union plant and move it to a non-union plant….The best thing for our workers would be to unionize all Hormel plants,” says shopsteward Steve Bormann of Local 6.

The chain-wide bargaining that will begin in August provides Bormann and the 4,000 other UFCW Hormel workers the opportunity to work together to win a strong new contract that will improve their wages and benefits—and will send a powerful signal to workers at non-union plants. “It will show new employees coming in that unions do work–and not just for wages, but for the future of America and its families,” says Local 22 member and steward Bill Anderson of the Hormel plant in Fremont, Nebraska.
With so much on the line, workers at the five plants already have started talking to co-workers, handing out informational leaflets, and makingplans for the August bargaining. “We all have a lot in common. We all want a fair wage, health care, and to be treated right. That’s why we need to communicate with each other and stand together on these issues,” says steward Ryan Dodds of Local 6. “It’s really important that we start talking and start working together.”
The need for unity is something stewards at all of the five plants agree is key. Says steward Armando Olvera of Local 9: “Unity creates power. We’re much stronger when we’re united.”

The recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at Swift & Co. were yet another example of how our immigration system isn’t working. Basic civil liberties and human dignity were thrown out the window and families torn apart. “I’m pretty upset with our government. I think we can do better than what we did the day of the raids,” says Randy Imler, UFCW Local 22 steward at Swift & Co., whose plant was raided in Grand Island Nebraska. “This is supposed to be the country that everyone wants to come to, not one that people are mad at or afraid to live in.”
As stewards, we’re on the front lines in the fight for a better workplace. We believe that all workers deserve decent wages, benefits, safety conditions and respect–no matter the color of their skin or the language they speak. That’s why it’s so frustrating to know companies specifically hire people to work in dangerous conditions for substandard wages because they don’t know their rights on the job and are too afraid to speak up. “If you’re a union member, and you go to work and pay union dues, the UFCW has a responsibility to protect you just as they would protect the rights of anyone else-no matter your race, creed, or color,” says Kevin Diale, a UFCW Local 227 chief steward at Swift & Co. in Louisville, Kentucky.
Stewards can help educate members on how the system which enables companies to violate workplace laws for immigrant workers is allowing them to violate protections for all workers. Immigration is not an easy thing to discuss, but it’s something we need to talk about-and stewards can take the lead.
“It’s time for a change,” says Lenora Reed, UFCW Local 227 chief steward at Equity Group in Albany, Kentucky. “Our government needs to hold somebody accountable–and it needs to be these companies.” The need for change is clear; however, there’s much debate on what reforms should be made. That’s why the UFCW has presented several principles of reform that you can use as talking points. The most relevant in our industry include:

•  End ineffective work site immigration enforcement programs like “Basic Pilot”and ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE);

•  Meaningful and enforceable employer punishments for immigration and labor law violations;

• Wage and working condition protection for all workers;

• No new guest worker or temporary worker programs that allow employers to turn permanent, full-time, family-supporting jobs into temporary, go-nowhere, exploitative jobs.

The UFCW supports comprehensive immigration reform that respects all workers’ rights. It’s important that we keep in mind that, a hundred years ago,the Polish, Italian, and Southern European immigrants who worked in our nation’s packing plants helped build the UFCW. Today, it’s immigrant workers from Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Africa who work alongside native-born workers in the processing lines of our industries who can make us stronger.

“We work side-by-side because our kids have to eat, because we have bills and rent to pay,” says Lenora Reed, “We share the same duties. We laugh, we joke, we cut up, and we move on. We’re buddies. We’re brothers and sisters.”

We look a lot different, but we are still the same union–one that is responsible for representing and protecting UFCW members and is committed to ensuring that all working people, immigrant and native-born, are able to improve their lives and realize the American dream.

Accordingly, in addition to securing better contracts, one goal of bargaining is growth. The first step to growth is unity bargaining, where UFCW members across the country who work in the same industry or for the same employers unite to bargain for better contracts. This makes sense because UFCW members no longer work for the small, locally owned employers of yesterday. Those small businesses have been taken over and are owned by a handful of national and multi-national employers with millions or billions of dollars in resources.

The recently launched Grocery Workers United is the first example of the UFCW’s unity bargaining campaign in the retail food industry. This campaign has a website, a major email activist program, and bulletin board flyers to keep UFCW grocery workers informed and mobilized. The campaign also creates national collective action through sticker and petition campaigns. For instance, UFCW members who work at Kroger grocery stores throughout the U.S. can show solidarity and support for members bargaining with Kroger stores in a particular area by wearing stickers or signing petitions.

Grocery Workers United has helped secure better contracts for several local unions who have already bargained contracts this year. The UFCW is building on the early success by further mobilizing UFCW members: identifying a “store coordinator” to inform and activate coworkers and customers, doubling the number of e-mail activists, and holding worksite meetings.

While the grocery industry has been the first to engage in unity bargaining, this type of unity campaign will extend to other industries like food processing, meatpacking, and poultry. The ultimate goal of unity bargaining in each industry is to create a core group of activists within our membership who will quickly respond with action in support of UFCW members nationwide. The key to mobilizing UFCW members and creating a core group of activists is through UFCW stewards. Stewards have day-to-day contact with members and can hold in-store or in-plant meetings, handle questions, and be the conduit for union and store information around the clock.

This year, the UFCW is initiating a program of multi-local stewards meetings. In areas where local unions have common employers, stewards can meet together to shape a common agenda and form a common program. Stewards will be trained to talk to their coworkers about union-wide bargaining, how to conduct break room meetings, and how to respond to questions.

This kind of industry-wide unity is a necessity for securing better contracts with our employers. The UFCW will continue to coordinate bargaining and contract expirations dates, as well as continue to use other resources such as political and legislative action and community pressure. But the UFCW’s strength at the bargaining table will come from the commitment of UFCW members uniting and acting together.

Our employers have to be convinced that the UFCW is capable of sustained union‑wide action if we are to convince them to change their behavior. Our employers complain about non-union competition, yet they become just that when they open up new plants or stores as non-union. If our employers want us to confront the non‑union competition, they must cooperate with us at the bargaining table and remain neutral in organizing new plants or stores. We are not going to help our employers grow if they want to expand non-union and have UFCW membership shrink. A union employer accepts and respects the union in every plant or store, in every area.

We can work with our employers to level the playing field with their non-union competition if they cooperate with us in creating a union differential in our contracts that attracts non‑union workers and helps us organize. That is how we can level the playing field. Everyone at every level of the UFCW must constantly, consistently and forcefully raise these issues in all of our dealings with our employers.

For UFCW members, the contract is the way to a better life. It’s what makes them “union” and they must be engaged in the plan for growth. UFCW members must become activists for growth because it’s the way to make contracts better, and that is the way to make life better for UFCW members.

The Reston, Virginia, steward has a good relationship with her co-workers because she approaches each worker with a commitment to fairness, honesty, and a passion to defend workers’ rights.

“I don’t let personal or professional feelings about a member affect my job as steward.  As their advocate, I have to make sure that all members feel comfortable with me in bringing forth questions or concerns,” Armitage says.

She adds that addressing everyone with kindness helps put workers at ease with her.  “I greet everyone in the workplace—it doesn’t even matter if they barely smile back,” says Armitage.  “It’s a small thing, but greeting everyone is one indication they know they can come to me and I’ll treat them the same as I do everyone else.”

Armitage says she ends up being so approachable that co-workers talk to her about all kinds of issues—even non-work related concerns.  While this may seem time consuming, it builds a trusting relationship between workers and the most accessible member of the union they can go to for help—their shop steward.  To sustain this relationship, she advises other stewards to take every problem seriously, and to show interest in what co-workers have to say.  It’s also vital to remember to keep matters between a steward and a co-worker confidential.

“When workers come to you with a problem, don’t just brush them off.  Though it may not be a big deal to you, it’s a big deal to them, and you should show that you care,” she warns.  “That includes following up with every conversation by taking the necessary steps of problem solving or filing a grievance.”

Armitage says stewards should look to defend workers, and never judge them.  “A surefire way to damage your reputation as a steward is for workers to feel you are passing judgment on them.  They won’t want to talk to you anymore, and that definitely can end up weakening the union in your workplace.”  She stresses to act as the worker’s advocate—never their adversary—when dealing with management.

According to Armitage, another thing that will hurt a steward’s credibility with workers is giving them incorrect information about the union, their contract, or grievance procedures.  “For many of the workers at my job, I am the union.  If they come to me with a problem and I give them the wrong information because I’m not sure of something, it’s not only me that has let them down.  They feel as though the union has failed them, and they lose their faith in being a union member.”

The steward must make sure that the worker’s rights are never jeopardized, Armitage explains.  If she isn’t certain how to answer a question or whether to file a grievance, she consults the other shop steward or speaks with the local union representative.  She looks over the union contract, union policies, and company policies for the correct information with every worker complaint.    Armitage says it’s her duty as a steward to provide sound advice for every worker, every time.