Observed every year on December 5th, AFL-CIO Day is a holiday that pays homage to the unions that protect millions of working people.

Unions allow member workers to come together to make the workplace a better place, to advocate for safer and healthier working conditions, and to negotiate better wages for all workers—usually resulting in an increase in wages for both union and non-union members alike.

All of these are good reasons why people should take a few moments to honor one of the largest federations of unions in the U.S., the AFL-CIO, on this holiday.

The History of AFL-CIO Day

Unfortunately, we were unable to trace the origins of this holiday. We’ll keep looking to find out who started it or when it was started, but so far, we just haven’t been able to uncover that information.

Interesting Facts About Unions

We are big fans of factoids, so we’ve decided to compile a list of facts about unions. After all, this is AFL-CIO Day. So we did some research, and the following bullet points below are a small sample of what we uncovered.

• On average, union workers earn 11.2% more money than non-union workers.
• Workers are more likely to participate in employer-provided retirement benefits than non-union workers.
• Union workers usually have more access to paid sick days than non-union workers.
• Black, Latino, and women workers earn 29% more, on average, when they belong to a union.
• About 96% of union workers have employer-provided health insurance.
• Only 69% of non-union workers have employer-provided health insurance.

Observing AFL-CIO Day

The best way to observe this holiday is to take a few moments to think about everything that unions do and have done for the workplace. Without unions in the U.S., wages would be even lower, and the work environment wouldn’t be as safe as it is today. The word about this holiday can also be spread around the world by using the hashtag #AFLCIODay on social media.