organizing

Late last year, when workers at Zenimax indicated they wanted to form a union, Microsoft stayed neutral through the organizing campaign.

One of the biggest challenges facing workers when they organize a union is reaching an initial collective bargaining agreement with their employer. New research confirms that only 36% of newly-organized units have a collective bargaining agreement within the first year, and 66% within three years. This delay in securing a binding, enforceable contract covering wages, hours and working conditions frustrates workers and undermines the collective bargaining process. Supporting this process helps further the Department’s mission to protect workers because unionized workers are more knowledgeable a

Wage theft is when an employer fails to pay workers some or all the wages that they earned.  It disproportionately victimizes low-wage earners, including immigrants who may hesitate to report unscrupulous employers. 

An update the status of the 70+ action items from the task force's first report and other actions to support workers and their organizing rights.

We sat down with Aurelia Glass, a researcher at the Center for American Progress to discuss her latest research on voluntary recognition and organizing.

Empowered workers help the department fulfill its mission because these workers are more likely to know and act on their workplace rights, helping ensure better compliance with workplace laws. 

Union membership grew in the U.S. last year by more than a quarter of a million workers. Here's what the numbers mean.

Unions improve the well-being of workers and support the mission of the U.S. Department of Labor in many ways.

Across the country, workers are organizing with their co-workers and engaging in collective action to gain improvements in their jobs and workplaces. What can we learn from these recent organizing efforts? How do they fit in the broader history of worker organizing in the United States? And how can the Department of Labor support worker organizing to advance our mission of improving working conditions for all workers?  

A White House task force is putting the federal government’s policy of encouraging worker organizing and collective bargaining into action.