AFSCME’s Saunders: New BLS report on membership earnings ‘proves the union difference’

WASHINGTON — AFSCME President Lee Saunders issued the following statement in response to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual report on union membership and earnings:

“Today’s BLS report proves the union difference and shows why workers across the nation are standing up to major corporations like Amazon and Starbucks, and even to cultural institutions, to form a union.

“Yet even as workers are winning these fights for better pay and benefits and union popularity has surged to its highest point in half a century, workers who want to organize confront a rigged system, particularly against deep-pocketed employers willing to lie and cheat to rob workers of their voice.

“Good pay and benefits are not just for the very top; every worker deserves their fair share from the work they put in to make businesses and communities succeed. To realize that goal, Congress must make it easier to form and join strong unions by passing the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act and Protect the Right to Organize Act.”