Photo by Earl Dotter.

Unions represent a declining share of the workforce, particularly in the private sector. And, employers routinely abridge the legal rights of workers to freely associate and bargain collectively, as documented in the 2000 Human Rights Watch report entitled Unfair Advantage (the report is available online at www.hrw.org/reports/2000/uslabor/).

Nevertheless, with 16.3 million members, organized labor is the largest and most powerful voice for working people in this country. Unions and community and faith-based organizations share a commitment to decent wages and working conditions, access to health care, affordable housing, quality child care, and healthy communities. Therefore, it makes sense to support coalitions who share our goals, particularly the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively.

Community-labor alliances have proven Discount's belief that they can and do yield major benefits for the poor, including immigrants, other low wage workers, and their communities.

Increasingly, Discount's grantees have worked with unions on living wage campaigns, job training programs, welfare and immigration reform, and other efforts to alleviate poverty. Community groups also have organized in support the right of workers to join unions and bargain collectively. See our grant list for more details.