Talkin' Union For The Holidays

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Here’s a familiar holiday scenario: everyone’s gathered around the dinner table and good old Uncle Louie – who’s been hitting the spiked eggnog hard -- starts in on how unions are run by big, overpaid bosses, workers are lazy, and unions are bad for business. It’s easy to tune out the misinformation about unions and the workers who make them strong when you hear it on the news, but what should you do when the same misinformation comes from your friends and family? American Rights at Work’s “A simple guide for talking unions this holiday season” provides some simple facts to help you speak up the next time you encounter someone attacking unions. For example, the Guide points out that unions raise productivity on average by up to 24% in manufacturing, 16% in hospitals, and 38% in the construction industry. So this year, along with the holiday cheer, shed a little light on what the labor movement is really all about, and soon Uncle Louie will be caroling “Solidarity Forever.”