Being employed in a unionized environment helps make your job and your workplace a more equitable and safe place to work. Through collective bargaining your employer pays you better and is more likely to provide benefits that help you balance work with life at home. Your health and ability to do your job become important, and your right to fair treatment gets enforced.

Unions make a difference both at work and in the quality of life you earn.

Workers in unions are an important part of the local community and economy because that’s where they spend what they earn. Their incomes support local businesses (who create more local jobs) and bolster the local tax base, which supports public works and community services that add to everyone’s quality of life.

Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and a group of employees aimed at reaching agreements to regulate working conditions. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs