Unions represent workers directly through the negotiation of union contracts that outline the expectations of both employers and employees. The union contract is a communication tool that facilitates productive labor management relations.

Unions provide training to increase skill levels, promote safe workplaces, and introduce new technologies and standards that make union workers among the highest quality, safest, most productive workers possible.

Unions have been a source of skilled, dedicated and reliable workers for more than 150 years. Union workers constructed and continue to maintain the highways, bridges and railways that allowed our state to grow and thrive. As union members, we take the representation of workers seriously; whether it’s direct representation on the job for union members or broader representation through community work or legislative involvement that benefits all working families. The labor movement made up the fabric of what has become America today. Throughout history, we lead the way to important gains on the job and in our communities. We passed laws that prevent child labor and define the work day and overtime. We established workplace safety standards and defined prevailing wages. In Montana, we implemented an annual cost of living increase in the minimum wage and promoted the enforcement of jobsite wage practices.

We established standards regarding workplace treatment and discipline. We created and continue to improve public education for everyone. So no matter the circumstance, every person has a chance at a better quality of life.

Our country has reached a critical crossroad. The 30-year drive for a low-wage, high consumption society that imports more and more of what it consumes, has hit the wall. A staggering number of workers have been jobless for more than six months while Wall Street reports ever-growing profits. Banks and corporations made off with trillions in public dollars, while small Montana businesses can’t get loans. Local governments are being forced to consider cuts to public education and public safety, which will have a resounding negative effect on our children and communities for generations to come.

To be true to what America was intended to be, we must privatize the wealth and socialize the risk. Quality, family-sustaining jobs allow working families to be part of the economic solution in every way from paying their taxes, their hospitals bills, and their local merchants for goods and services to getting an education and offering high quality skills back to the communities where they live. Stable communities have broad shoulders and long-term strategies to face uncertainty and times of difficulty with courage and balance.

In Montana we have significant opportunities for quality job creation. Much of the lands and waterways that are in need of reclamation were once workplaces where the riches came at the expense of the land and the people. Many workers died on the same soil where reclamation jobs today are proposed with little more consideration for workers than were originally offered years ago. We cannot bring forth a culture of respecting and reclaiming this land without addressing the desperate need for a culture that respects and protects the workers.

Montana workers have a proud history of joining together and driving a better standard for Montana families. As a new generation is coming of age, there’s an undeniable demand for sustainable jobs. The people who have the decision-making power to create these jobs in Montana already enjoy quality, sustainable jobs that offer wages that will support a family with health insurance and defined-benefit retirement plans. It is imperative that these decision-makers engage in their civic, social, and moral duty to pass that good fortune on to other workers at every opportunity.

Throughout all of history no movement has risen purely for the aid of workers, but workers themselves. As we near the beginning of our second century as the Montana labor movement, we understand that in an ever-changing world our job will never be done. We will always welcome the call from workers wanting to join the union. However, we vow to continue the good fight to bring quality jobs, decency, and dignity to all Montana working families and we honor the generations of union members – past, present, and future – who have led the way.