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By joining with your colleagues in a union at your work place you benefit in many ways. On the job, your union brings together the collective strength of you and your coworkers to insure meaningful negotiations with management for an equitable contract. Besides wages and salaries, areas that can be negotiated include: staffing and overtime, safety and health, cost of living raises, adequate pensions, vacations, equitable promotion systems and transfer policies, and a workable grievance system. Through your union, you and your coworkers oversee carrying out the provisions of the contract. If necessary, a union may take contract violations and wrongs to workers to third-party impartial arbitration.

Outside of the work place, the union works for you as well. The status of your profession and the well-being of the individual practitioner are not only affected by employing institutions but by government. Union organizations have been extremely effective in advocating the cause of their members in the halls of government at the federal, state, and county levels. Every day unions fight hard for their members in Congress, state legislatures, city hall, the courts and other departments and agencies of government. In an era of ever larger health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and insurance companies, this advocacy is more important than ever for health care professionals and staff.

For more information on the benefits of union membership for professionals, please see the attached link: "I'm a professional.  What can the union do for me?"  This informational piece was prepared by the USW Health Care Workers Council (HCWC) and the National Pharmacists Association (NPha).

For more information or to receive a copy of this publication, call 1-800-637-8513, ext. 8.