NALC Branch 193

Why Shop Union Made?

It Matters How You Shop!
Personal consumer spending on everyday items like clothes, toothpaste, food, etc. accounts for 68 percent of all the wealth created annually in the United States. (That’s $6.8 trillion a year!)
Source: U.S. Department of the Census

Every Job Counts (maybe more than you think)!
When a worker is hired, nearly five additional jobs are created somewhere else in the economy. And every time someone is laid off in the U.S., nearly five more people lose their jobs. Wages buy groceries, gasoline, clothing and other goods and services that keep other people working. When companies hire, they order more supplies and raw materials, creating additional jobs for vendors. When companies downsize and lay off, spending and wages are slashed and jobs vanish throughout the economy. It’s Economics 101: The fight for good jobs is everyone’s fight.

When You Shop, “Vote with Your Dollars” for Good Jobs.
It is up to you, alone. Your shopping dollars can support products made by people earning good pay and benefits. Or your dollars can support products made by -- who knows? Political prisoners in China? Child laborers in Haiti? Terrorized factory workers in a Mexican border town?
It really is simple: Buy union and take responsibility for what your dollars do.
“Support Good Jobs. Shop Union!”

Look at the Price of Unjust, Unfair Trade
At $100 a minute, you would need 9,151 years to pay off the current U.S. trade deficit. The U.S. owes foreign nations a whopping $481,000,000,000 (That’s $481 billion!) That’s the price of importing more than we export; of outsourcing to exploit cheap repressed labor overseas; of trade deals that ignore worker rights and the environment. That’s why we say: “Shop Union! Invest in good jobs for your community.” [Do the math: 1,440 minutes/day = 525,600 minutes/year. 525,600 min/yr x $100/min. = $52.56 million/yr. Dividing $481,000,000,000 by $52,560,000/year = 9,151 years.]

Union Jobs = Good Jobs = Strong Communities
The average union worker earns $760 a week, compared to $599 a week for non-union workers in the same occupations. That 27 percent difference in wages and salaries means more dignity and independence for working families. It also means more wages spent within the community, a stronger tax base and less drain on social services. “Support Good Jobs. Shop Union!”
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Union Jobs are “Ladder Up” for Poorest Workers
Unions provide a sure path out of poverty for the poorest workers. African Americans earn 35 percent more in wages and salaries when they unionize ($665 a week, compared to $491 a week for those without a union). Latino and Latina union members earn a whopping 51 percent more ($632 a week versus $419 a week) and wages for women of all races were 33 higher for union members ($696 a week compared to $522 a week).
“Support Good Jobs. Shop Union!”
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Unions Key to Health Care and Secure Retirement
Did you know 73 percent of union workers enjoy medical care benefits, compared with only 51 percent of nonunion workers? And 79 percent of union workers are covered by a pension plan versus only 44 percent of nonunion workers.
The quality of benefits is also far higher for union-represented employees. For example, 70 percent of union workers have defined-benefit pension plans (which provide guaranteed minimum benefit payments) compared to 16 percent of nonunion employees.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Shopping Union Promotes Stable, Full-time Jobs
Fully 50 percent of union employees have worked at least 10 years for the same employer, compared to only 22 percent of nonunion employees. Not only are union members more satisfied with their jobs, pay and benefits; they also have contracts with grievance procedures to protect against unjust firings. (Nonunion workers are "employees at will" who can be fired at any time for any reason—or for no reason.) Full-time workers are also twice as likely to be represented by a union. Involuntary part-time employment (common among non-union workers) is a major cause of poverty.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics -

“Support Good Jobs. Shop Union!"

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What products are still American-made?

If you're tired of poisoning your kids with lead-painted toys from China or killing your pets with melamine-laced Chinese pet food, you may be wondering what you can buy that's made in America.

To its credit, China is trying to fix its reputation. According to CBS News, China's product safety chief Li Changjiang offered assurances that toys made in China would be "safer, better and more appealing. Before Christmas, we will certainly provide children safer, better and more appealing toys. They will certainly like them." To bolster that claim, on September 11th, China signed an agreement to prohibit the use of lead paint on toys exported to the United States.

As posted in July, 2007, we expect that there could be a business opportunity to sell products to U.S. consumers that are made anywhere but China. Then we cited examples of an upscale New York grocery with no Chinese seafood and a New Jersey-based natural producer of premium dog food blended from meat and vegetables. However, we have not seen much in the way of new developments in the last few months.

So what are the choices for those who want to buy products made in the U.S.A.?

It's surprisingly difficult to find companies that actually make their products in America. For instance, you might think that Anheuser Busch Companies (NYSE: BUD) brews its beer in the U.S. However, while it has many plants in the U.S., it also brews in Japan, China and Germany. Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS) makes its Monopoly board game in Waterford, Ireland, not in the U.S. And Wrangler jeans for the U.S. market are manufactured in Central America and Mexico.

We started off looking at companies on the Made in America site -- a show on the Travel Channel. This led us to a long list of companies. While many of the names on this list are headquartered in the U.S., many make some if not all of their products in other countries (to find out, simply do a Google search on 'where is [product name] manufactured,' which usually leads to relevant information on the topic). We decided to strike those names from the list we would write about and focus only on those companies that were fairly well-known brands which as far as we could tell actually made their products in the USA.