A union is a group of workers who organize together to bargain with their employer as a collective rather than as individuals. The basic logic is straightforward: one worker asking for a raise is easy to ignore or fire. A hundred workers asking together, and willing to stop working if they don't get a fair answer, is a different conversation.

The contracts, the grievance procedures, the elections, the dues, the national affiliations: all of it builds on that core dynamic of collective power.

How a Union Gets Started

In most private sector workplaces, forming a union starts with workers. A group of employees decides they want to organize, begins having conversations with coworkers, and eventually files for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board.

The NLRB runs a secret ballot election. If a majority of workers vote yes, the union is certified as the exclusive bargaining representative for those workers. The employer is then legally required to bargain in good faith with the union over wages, hours, and working conditions.

In practice, employers rarely sit on the sidelines during this process. Most hire union-avoidance consultants the moment organizing activity is detected. The consultants run what are called captive-audience meetings, mandatory sessions where workers are required to attend and listen to the employer's case against the union. Supervisors are often trained to have one-on-one conversations with employees to discourage them from voting yes. The NLRB process is slow enough that employers have weeks or months to run this campaign before ballots are cast.

Despite all of that, union elections happen and unions win them. The Amazon Labor Union won its election at a Staten Island warehouse in 2022 with no national union backing and no outside funding, purely through worker-to-worker organizing. Starbucks workers have voted to unionize at hundreds of locations since 2021. The organizing wave that started around 2021 demonstrated that even in environments built to resist it, workers can win.

What a Union Contract Does

Once a union is recognized, it negotiates a collective bargaining agreement with the employer. This is a legally binding contract that covers the terms of employment for everyone in the bargaining unit.

A typical union contract addresses wages and wage increases, health insurance and other benefits, pension or retirement contributions, hours and scheduling, overtime rules, paid leave, workplace safety standards, and the procedures for disciplining or firing workers. The grievance procedure is one of the most important provisions: it gives workers a formal process to challenge employer actions they believe violate the contract, up to and including arbitration by a neutral third party.

Before unions, an employer could fire a worker for any reason or no reason, change their schedule without notice, cut their pay, or change their working conditions unilaterally. A union contract creates binding rules that both sides have to follow, with consequences for violations.

How a Union Is Structured

Union structure runs from the workplace outward. The local union is the most immediate level, covering a specific workplace or geographic group of workers. Local unions have elected leadership, including a president and shop stewards who handle day-to-day workplace issues and grievances. Regular meetings give members a voice in how the local operates.

Above the local level, most unions have regional or state bodies that coordinate between locals, handle political action, and provide resources for organizing drives or contract campaigns. At the top is the national or international union, which sets overall policy, negotiates national contracts in some industries, and makes political endorsements.

Central labor councils are geographic groupings of different unions at the city or county level. They coordinate on community issues, political campaigns, and coalition work. If you want to understand the organized labor presence in a particular city, the central labor council is usually where to start.

What Dues Pay For

Union members pay dues, typically a percentage of wages, that fund the union's operations. Those funds pay for staff who service contracts and handle grievances, for legal representation in arbitration and NLRB proceedings, for organizing new workers, and for political action. Dues also maintain the strike fund, the financial reserve that supports workers if they go on strike.

The amount varies by union and contract. Public sector union members in some states can opt out of the portion of dues used for political activity, following a Supreme Court ruling. Private sector dues structures vary by union.

Why It Matters Who You're Affiliated With

Most unions are affiliated with either the AFL-CIO or the Change to Win Federation, the two major labor federations in the United States. Affiliation provides resources, coordination with other unions, and political infrastructure.

Some unions are independent, with no national affiliation. The Amazon Labor Union is the most recent prominent example. Independent unions have more autonomy but fewer resources and less established infrastructure for contract negotiations and grievance processing.

The union that represents workers in a given workplace is often determined by industry and history as much as by worker preference. Nurses may find themselves in the Service Employees International Union or the American Federation of Teachers depending on their state and employer. Construction workers are typically represented by trade unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO building trades. Public school teachers are split between the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

For workers considering organizing, the choice of which union to affiliate with matters and deserves research before a campaign is launched.

The Limits of What Unions Can Do Alone

Unions are powerful tools for improving wages and conditions in unionized workplaces. The legal environment in which they operate is set by legislation and by how the NLRB is staffed and funded.

The rules governing what unions can do, how elections are conducted, what constitutes an unfair labor practice, and whether employers can be required to bargain in good faith all flow from the National Labor Relations Act and its amendments. A union that wins at the bargaining table can still lose ground when the NLRB is stacked against it, when right-to-work laws drain its finances, or when anti-union legislation passes.

This is exactly why the labor movement needs political power alongside workplace power, and why the Labor Party exists. The union contract is only as strong as the legal framework that enforces it, and that framework is a political question.

Learn more at votelabor.org.