PRESS RELEASE

CONTACT: Rich Kline, President
(202) 508-3700

Buy Union Week—Nov 28-Dec 7, 2008

Union Families Will Focus on Union-Made Gifts for the 2008 Holiday Season Help us promote Buy Union Week

Each year, the AFL-CIO Union Label & Service Trades Department designates the 10 days following Thanksgiving—typically the heaviest retail days of the year—as “Buy Union Week” to encourage union workers and their families to shop for union made products and services when they buy for the Holidays. For 2008, that observance starts November 28th and runs through December 7th.

The AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention officially adopted Buy Union Week in 2005, urging the Federation’s affiliated unions to “use all the means at their disposal” to publicize the program.

“Americans traditionally observe the Holidays with gifts to friends and family that serve as tokens of our care for others. When working families care enough to seek out union made gifts, they’re giving a gift of good jobs and boosting good neighborhoods and strong communities,” explained US&STD President Rich Kline.

During Buy Union Week working families are encouraged to let merchants know that they want to find union products and services when they shop; and that they’re even willing to pay a premium for the assurance that a product or service comes from union labor. “Time and again, surveys tell us that working families prefer the quality of union goods and services, but they often have trouble finding that choice,” Kline said. This year, he noted, union members will also be presenting merchants who share an interest in providing union goods with a “Thanks for Caring” certificate.

Kline pointed out that, even in today’s shaky economy, American consumers are expected to spend more than $90 billion on Holiday gifts. At least 10 percent, or $9 billion of that spending, comes from union households. “We’re asking union members to look for union products. And, if they just can’t find a union source for the right gift, we’re suggesting they substitute cash and let the recipient know that they would rather give cash than substitute an inferior product from a non-union source,” Kline said.

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The Union Label Website features a directory of union made-in-the-USA products and services (www.unionlabel.org), but we need your help to bring it up to date. Readers can access the directory on the Union Label home page in the left hand column. If you have information about union-made products and services that ought to be on that list, please click on the link “Log in to add union Product or Service”. That link will take you to an online form where you can fill in the pertinent information and automatically forward it on to the Department. Please note that we need the correct name or initials of the parent union, the local union number, the location of the facility and the brand name or type of product.
All submissions will be checked with the appropriate parent union before they are posted.
If you work for a union company and you do not see that company’s name or products on the directory—please enlist as a Label Reporter. It only takes a few minutes to complete the online form.

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A growing number of union activists receive the Label Letter on line. It’s free, easy and the quickest way to get the latest Label news. Go to www.unionlabel.org, in the right hand column you will see a space to enter your e-mail address. Click enter and you will immediately begin receiving not only the bi-monthly Label Letter but also all press releases, announcements and “Label Flashes”—special alerts dealing with a range of news and information.