Having been a member of the APWU since 1978, or for 46+ years, I fully understand the importance of Unions and having a Union Job.
Unions provide much better compensation for workers along with much better protections for the workers safety and health. There were 5,486 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2022, the last year we have documented figures for. You can see the Census Report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2022 here: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm
In 2020, our state sported the highest per capita workplace fatality rate in the nation. This is NOT a statistic we should be proud of. NO workers should have to give their lives to enjoy employment so they can feed their family. Union work places have much lower accident, injury and fatality rates than non union. This is proven by the fact Wyoming has one of the lowest Union membership rates in the country, coming in around 5%.
My current job, performed without compensation, is President of the APWU chartered Retiree Chapter for this area. My hundreds and hundreds of members voluntarily pay $3 a month for dues and are members of the APWU. We are an important arm of the APWU Political and Legislative activity as Postal Workers are oppressed by the Hatch Act while we retirees are unhatched.
Unions are precluded by law from using one penny of dues paid by their membership for political purposes so most, like my Union, create a legal Committee on Political Action or COPA, that anyone may voluntarily contribute to. The COPA fund donates to campaigns designated as pro Union after consultation by the COPA committee. This campaign received $5000 from APWU.
This campaign takes Union contributions because I am already beholden to Unions and workers. This campaign does not accept a single penny from corporations and-or monopolies as I can not and will not be beholden to corporate agendas. Workers struggle from pay check to pay check everyday. The humongous corporations are all doing just fine.
I actually used to be a member of the republican party, an Eisenhower Republican, because he supported unions, unemployment compensation and protection of social security. That party left me in the dust so the big tent of the Democratic Party is where I ended up.