Posts Categorized: Survey

All Local Unions are encouraged to participate in the AFL-CIO’s National Survey of Working Women. This is another tool to help increase our dialogue and connection to UFCW members. The survey is available online from October 27- December 4 and the UFCW Women’s Network will be working throughout the country to help extend the reach of the survey amongst UFCW members and increase the power of the results.

While the survey is administered by the AFL-CIO, data will be collected so that UFCW will have the results of the surveys of UFCW members and those UFCW asks to complete the survey.  The survey is anonymous and focuses on broad issues of importance to working women.

The survey is designed to capture a multifaceted picture of the lives of working women across the country, both union and non-union.  It is an opportunity to educate advocates and the media on the challenges working women face, whether it is on the job, balancing work and family, or leading in our communities.  It is another tool to help us tell the story of our UFCW family and hard working families across the country.

To ensure UFCW members have a voice and are represented in the results of this important survey, Local Union leadership is encouraged to share the survey with the working women in their memberships through local union publications, e-mail lists, websites, and social media platforms.

Over the next month, please use the digital toolkit to help spread the word about the survey to your community. You will find sample tweets, Facebook posts, branded and graphics, and e-mail language.

The survey is available on the UFCW web page and online at www.ufcw.org/WWsurvey/ and takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.

Seventy-two percent of underpaid workers approve of labor unions, and 75 percent support a $15 minimum wage and a union according to the first-ever poll of workers paid less than $15 an hour.

The poll, released Monday by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), follows on an April 2015 NELP study that found 42 percent of workers in the nation are paid less than $15 an hour. With the presidential campaign season heating up and Democrats convening next week for their first candidate debate, the poll looks at the voting preferences of this critical demographic of underpaid workers:

• 69 percent of unregistered respondents say they would register to vote if there were a presidential candidate who supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and making it easier for workers to join a union;
• 65 percent of registered voters say they are more likely to vote if a candidate supports $15 and a union for all workers; and
• 69 percent of respondents favor raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The poll is the latest in a band of research demonstrating growing public support for unions and the importance of unions in the economic recovery. A recent Gallup Organization poll found a sharp uptick—to 58 percent—in approval of labor unions amongst the general population; the poll released today shows a significantly higher level of support among underpaid workers—higher than any Gallup study has recorded for the general population since 1959:

• 72 percent of underpaid workers approve of unions;
• 69 percent say it should be easier for workers like themselves to join together and form a union;
• 72 percent believe unions can make a real difference in whether or not workers like themselves get raises;
• 66 percent say they would have a better chance of making $15 an hour and being able to support their families if they could join a union; and
• Support for $15 and a union is particularly strong in the South: 77 percent of Southern respondents expressed support.

“We’ve long known that unions help create good jobs and boost the economy, and now we know that underpaid workers share that view as well,” said NELP Executive Director Christine Owens. “An overwhelming majority want $15 and a union—and a president who will stand behind them in support of these basic rights. Underpaid workers in our country are a powerful force to be reckoned with in the workplace and the voting booth.”