BUILD BACK BETTER WITH UNIONS

LABOR UNIONS = EQUITY + OPPORTUNITY + STRONG COMMUNITIES.

Right now, elected officials in the Greater Boston area have an unprecedented opportunity to help families recover from the pandemic and to build an equitable economy that works for everyone. With unions, this can become a reality. Together, we can stop the race to the bottom. 

In Greater Boston and beyond, unions provide a path to a better life for all workers. We stand up for opportunity, equity and safety.

Unions guarantee pay equity for women and people of color.
Unions ensure working people earn family-sustaining wages and benefits.
Unions provide life-saving training and ensure safety on the job. 

That is why support for unions across the country is growing. 

With unions, workers have greater opportunities in their workplaces and the ability to live a better life. As we slowly emerge from the pandemic, workers are paying attention. Workers are the movement. YOU are the movement.

Together, the Greater Boston Labor Council represents more than 100,000 hardworking families throughout every neighborhood of Boston and surrounding cities and towns. We’re hotel workers, construction workers, healthcare workers, janitors, teachers, and more. We are also voters. This is our movement and our moment to build back better. To build back with opportunity, with equity, and with strong communities, we need to build back better WITH unions. Our elected leaders should lend their support to us — working families — and should help our communities build back better WITH unions to create:

Opportunity

Our elected leaders must protect and expand workers’ rights. Working people deserve pay equity, collective bargaining, and a voice on the job. Unions defend our communities and the public good.

  • All workers need unions — and that includes “gig” workers who need a voice and rights on the job.
  • Unions fight for equal pay and contracts that spell out pay rates. This means pay equity for everyone, and prevents unequal pay for women and people of color.
  • Unions protect collective bargaining rights, ensuring better working conditions, pay, and benefits that are clearly agreed upon in writing.
  • The city of Boston must establish a Cabinet level Department of Labor within the city, to protect and defend worker rights in Boston.
  • Our communities need affordable housing so we can live and work right in our cities and towns. Now is the time to stop mass foreclosures and evictions, preserving eviction moratoriums and safe housing for all.
  • Public transit is a public good — for essential workers, low-income residents, and reduces vehicular traffic and pollution.
  • Unions welcome all into high-level, quality apprentice programs — anyone can build a family-sustaining career here.

Equity

Unions champion racial justice, immigrant rights and climate justice.

  • We fight for racial justice and stand with Black Lives Matter.
  • We stand for immigrant justice — pushing for legislation like the Safe Communities Act and the Work and Family Mobility Act.
  • The time is now for environmental justice — we deserve clean and safe communities, and will stop those polluting and damaging our cities and towns.
  • Climate justice for all — we are building toward green solutions and green jobs across the region.
  • Residents must have full tenant protections and rights – all persons must have due process, fair and transparent rights, and decent housing.
  • We stand for healthcare for all.
  • Unions mean winning wages that provide a life with dignity.

Strong Communities

We must Build Back Better in our neighborhoods and workplaces. Our families need Paid Family and  Medical Leave, child care, and health and safety protections at the workplace.

  • Our essential workers need PPE and protective equipment, even as we emerge from the pandemic.
  • We won Paid Family and Medical Leave for many, but we won’t stop until all workers have access.
  • Workers deserve a safe and healthy environment, with OSHA regulations upheld and enforced – stop rewarding companies who hurt our communities.
  • Safe and long-established Union apprenticeship programs are the pathway to better, safer, healthier work.
  • No more cuts — stop budget cuts to our schools, our housing, our transportation, and other public services.
  • Quality, reliable childcare IS infrastructure — parents need safe, reliable, affordable child care to return to work.
  • Unions advocate for pensions and a retirement with dignity.

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Brought to you by the Greater Boston Labor Council.

Greater Boston Labor Council