Our union bargained a number of incredibly successful contracts over the past year that included significant wage increases and strong benefits.
We were also able to make substantial progress on another longstanding priority, eliminating or reducing two-tiered wage systems in an array of industries, including paper, rubber and tire, glass, chemical, health care, general manufacturing, basic metals and more.
Altogether, we’ve been able to negotiate contracts improving well more than 100,000 of our members’ wages by either shortening the time in the wage progression, increasing the pay in the systems or completely eliminating two-tier schemes.
That’s on top of across-the-board general wage increases.
Righting these wrongs helps everyone, but in particular, it supports our newer members. It also strengthens our union even more in the long run.
We're extremely proud of the folks at the bargaining table who were able to negotiate these wins, a large portion of the credit goes to our Next Gen activists who have been at the forefront of prioritizing and driving this issue.
Employers know how powerful we are when we’re united, so they try to drive wedges like tiered systems between us, pitting new workers against more senior members. We have to resist these deals and dismantle them everywhere we can.
And this past year, we showed them what true solidarity means.
We came together across ages and levels of seniority, and as a result of this unity, we notched successes in every corner of our union.
While we still have work to do, you proved that as long as we have each other’s backs, we can accomplish anything.