It is time to assess our Union’s goals and objectives and reaffirm our commitment to protect and advance the living standards of our current membership and for those who join our union in the future.
Organizing is the only way that we can keep this commitment to ourselves and our future members.
If you do not keep our commitment then we lose the heart of our union and we will surely cease to exist.General President M. J. Sullivan 1999 BA Conference
Why Organize?
In today’s political and economic climate, now more than ever workers need to join together. A union can help create a more level playing field with your employer. Instead of one person telling management that wages should be fair, health and safety regulations should be followed and employees deserve good health care benefits, a union helps you speak together, in one voice. And that chorus of voices has more power than one lone voice. A union is the vehicle workers can use to help bring the chorus together.
United We Bargain, Divided We Beg
A union is created when employees come together to try to improve their working conditions and pay. Some outside “third-party does not impose unions” as anti-union employers would like you to believe. A union exists only when a majority of workers vote for it in a secret ballot election.
Our ranks will grow as more and more workers realize the benefit of being part of a union. Everywhere, according to the latest reports and statistics, workers and professional associations are joining large labor unions to help protect their jobs, their rights and benefits and improve working conditions.
Employers know that with a union, workers gain the power to make themselves heard. That’s why an employer will go to great lengths to try to divide us — by the kind of work we do or who we happen to know in management. Or by age, gender, race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, physical conditions or anything else they can think of.
Why?
Because when we stand united, we have more strength. Strength to win good contracts, better benefits, and better working conditions. To fight for better laws, and to gain dignity and respect on the job.
In fact, the only way to gain a voice on our jobs and gain real, positive changes in the workplace is to get it in writing – in a legally binding union contract.
When more workers organize with the Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 83, we all gain the power to make ourselves heard.
“Only a handful of unreconstructed reactionaries harbor the ugly thought of breaking unions and of depriving working men or working women of the right to join the union of their choice.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Did You Know
- Union members earn 25% more than non-union workers*
- 70% of Union members have guaranteed defined benefit Pensions*
- 73% of union members have health care benefits*
*Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Earnings, January 2002 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee Benefits in Private Industry, 1999
If you would like more information about becoming a member of Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 83 you may contact the Organizing / Marketing Development Department at: pssmlu83@nycap.rr.com