Your Union, Your Voice 2022 Survey Results; Retirement Security Ranks as Top Issue
Our 2022 Your Union, Your Voice survey effort has concluded with thousands of members and retirees responding to our membership survey and thousands more providing feedback at the 150+ town halls that USW Districts hosted across the United States.
You’ll recall that the USW first launched Your Union, Your Voice (YUYV) two years ago so that we could hear about your top priorities and share information about our union’s core issues.
Thousands of you helped make that effort an overwhelming success. Your input helped shape our work over the last two years, and I’m extremely proud to remind you that we’ve been able to celebrate significant progress in a number of the areas you indicated as most important to you.
Progress on Workers’ Issues
Most notably, we:
- Achieved a massive win on retirement security that will protect the benefits of 120,000 active and retired members who were at risk of losing everything.
- Realized a decades-long goal with the once-in-a-generation infrastructure bill the President signed into law in November 2021. This move will keep countless USW members’ jobs strong for years to come while improving our communities and overall global competitiveness.
- Saw a change in the leadership at the National Labor Relations Board that provided fundamental improvements for workers seeking justice when they or their unions are subjected to unfair labor practices.
Our 2022 Your Union, Your Voice Report
As I am providing this report to SOAR members, the results were no surprise to me. I highlight that retirement security was the top-rated issue of importance among respondents to our 2022 YUYV membership survey.
Retirement security was followed closely by affordable health care and prescription drugs (which was 2020’s top-ranked issue of concern among members and retirees) and labor laws that allow us to organize and secure good contracts took the third spot.
Additionally, more than 70 percent of respondents listed trade agreements and laws that protect U.S. workers, increased worker wages, and safety and health as “very important.”
Acting Upon Your Feedback
With the 2022 midterm elections rapidly approaching, union members and retirees will be presented with another opportunity to help elect pro-retiree, pro-worker and pro-union lawmakers who can be our allies in making progress on the issues you’ve indicated to be most important to you.