Unions Make Lives Better for Workers

With a union, you can have a voice and respect at work, a real say in your pay and benefits, fairness, job security, and safer working conditions. The USW works with you to end unfair treatment, inconsistent rules, favouritism and intimidation. Working with the USW, you can make work safer, improve job satisfaction and pride in your workplace.

Without the protection, support and strength of a union, working people depend on the ‘goodwill' of management.

A Voice On The Job

With a union, the people who actually do the work have a say in how things operate. Instead of simply reacting to arbitrary decisions coming from management, you will have a stronger voice in the policies and decisions that affect you and your family. And that means real problem solving.

Fairness & Equality

Union contracts emphasize fairness and equality with one set of rules negotiated by and for all employees. With a union, you can reduce arbitrary disparities and inequities. And when your pay, benefits and other terms of employment are written into your union contract, they can't be changed without your approval.

As union members, you will have protection from unfair discipline and discharge through a grievance procedure. This allows you to challenge management decisions that you believe are not justified.

Job Security

Having a union at your workplace can give you real input in restructuring and other decisions that can affect your job security. It also allows employees to speak out about problems on the job without fear of retaliation, and to have a say when cost-cutting, contracting-out, and other decisions are considered. With a union contract, you can cut out favouritism, challenge unfair discipline, and make sure seniority is considered in layoffs, promotions, transfers and other decisions.

Health and Safety

With a union, you and your co-workers will have the support you need to resolve workplace health and safety issues that threaten you.

The USW is a leader in advocating for healthy and safe workplaces. Our decades of health and safety leadership show the design of work, and how it is planned and supervised, has a profound effect on the health of employees and the environment.

The USW is committed to working with you to negotiate health and safety provisions in your contract to reduce the hazards and risks of work. We want to promote the well-being of our members, our families and our communities. We want to ensure that every single worker goes home in the same physical and mental health as when they came into work.

Better Pay

Union members have better pay. Union membership allows you and your co-workers to negotiate a fair pay system that applies to everyone and provides raises you can count on. Many union contracts provide increases to ensure that employees are fairly compensated for experience, commitment and length of service. With a union, you know when to expect a raise and how much it will be.

Better Benefits

Unionized employees have better benefits. By forming a union you can negotiate a contract with benefits and retirement income plans that are guaranteed in writing.

Respect and Partnership

With your union, you can work to solve problems in an equal partnership with management. Over time, union membership helps employees and management build constructive, positive relationships based on cooperation and respect. And that makes for a better working life.

Unity and Strength for Workers

Being a USW member is more than an opportunity to exercise your rights and win fairness at work - it is also an opportunity to expand your own skills, to build new friendships and to see the world through new eyes. Working people of all backgrounds, languages, races and life experiences have come together in the USW for the common purpose of improving their families' lives.