Every day, union members make choices that shape their communities, their industries, and the future of work in America. One of the most powerful—and often overlooked—choices is what we buy. From groceries and clothing to cars, appliances, entertainment, and professional services, our purchasing decisions send a message about the kind of economy we want to build.
More than a century ago, Florence Kelley, a leader of the National Consumers League, summed up this idea with words that still ring true today:
“To live means to buy, to buy means to have power, to have power means to have responsibility.”
For union members, that responsibility includes standing up for good jobs, fair wages, safe workplaces, and strong communities—values embodied in union-made products and union-provided services.
Buying Union Is an Investment in Our Communities
When union members buy union-made, they aren’t just purchasing a product—they are circulating dollars back into local and regional economies. Union jobs are good jobs. They pay family-sustaining wages, offer benefits, support retirement security, and uphold strong safety standards. Those wages, in turn, are spent in local stores, restaurants, and service businesses, supporting even more jobs throughout the community.
The ripple effect is real: one union paycheck helps sustain small businesses, public services, and local tax bases that fund schools, infrastructure, and emergency services. Choosing union-made strengthens this economic chain, reinforcing stability where we live and work.
Protecting Jobs and Raising Standards Across Industries
Every time we choose a union-made product or a union service contractor, we help protect existing jobs and create demand for new ones. But the impact goes even further. Union standards raise the bar across industries—pushing wages up, improving safety, and strengthening benefits even for non-union workers.
Buying union also helps protect American manufacturing, construction, transportation, energy, entertainment, food production, and public services from a race to the bottom. In a global economy often driven by outsourcing and labor exploitation, union purchasing keeps jobs rooted here at home under fair labor standards.
Consumer Power Is Worker Power
Union workers understand better than anyone that corporations and policymakers track where money flows. When workers act together as informed consumers, that collective power becomes a formidable force. It rewards employers who do the right thing and sends a clear message to those who don’t.
Florence Kelley’s words remind us that buying is never neutral—it’s an act of responsibility. Every union label is a statement that workers deserve dignity, voice, and fairness. It’s a way to extend collective bargaining beyond the jobsite and into the marketplace.
Supporting Union Services Strengthens Union Communities
Union power doesn’t just come from factory floors or job sites. It also flows through the service economy—union electricians, plumbers, hotel workers, grocery workers, nurses, stagehands, public employees, construction crews, and countless others who keep our communities running every day.
Choosing union contractors, union hotels, union caterers, union entertainment, and union retailers directly supports working families who share our values and our struggles. It helps sustain strong labor standards in every corner of the economy.
A Daily Act of Solidarity
Union solidarity doesn’t stop when the workday ends. It continues every time we shop, dine, travel, and hire services. Choosing union-made is one of the most practical, powerful, and personal ways to live our values as union members.
As Florence Kelley reminds us, buying is power—and power carries responsibility. By intentionally seeking out and supporting union products and union services, we strengthen our families, our communities, our industries, and the entire labor movement.
Buy union. It’s not just a label—it’s a commitment to working people and to the future we’re building together.
