USW Core Value Educational Series

Our union understood right from the beginning that we couldn’t rely solely on negotiations to better our members’ lives. We would also have to push our government to act.

Elected officials could help us by passing legislation to make us safer on the job, help us secure pensions, get better working hours, and more.

A legislative gain meant one more thing we didn’t have to bargain over. We could then focus on even greater goals in our negotiations.

We know to be powerful, we have to work for laws and policies that support us.

Our core issues include: collective bargaining, safety and health, job security (trade), domestic economic issues (infrastructure investment, domestic procurement and policies that bring fairness to the workplace), health care, and retirement security.

These are the fights that help us build family-supportive, good jobs and strong communities. They reflect our values and a vision of the America that works for workers.

Over the next few weeks, Rapid Response will be doing a series of educational pieces around these core issues and how we work to protect them.