The American Promise makes us believe that if we go to school, work hard, and become loyal and productive employees, then in return, we will have the salary to support a family, educate and raise our children comfortably, enjoy a healthy and fulfilling life and retire with no financial worries.

Unfortunately, the middle class vision of what the American Promise once meant is slowly disappearing in direct proportion to the demise of the American Union Movement. After WWII, nearly 30% of our workforce belonged to unions. Today, barely half of them are still organized.

Organizing is a term that has traditionally been used for a group of workers banding together to join a union or for unions to admit new members. However, at Plumbers Local 219, organizing means that and much more.

Our vision of organizing is the expansion of our union contractor base and increasing the market share of the unionized plumbing and piping industry. This expansion allows us to fulfill our unions’ primary obligation, which is to provide work opportunities with the best wages and benefits for our union members. This strategy also allows us to grow our union as necessary in order to remain strong in the future and affords us the opportunity to achieve another goal of all unions, which is to help raise the standard of living for working families in our jurisdiction.

We are implementing this strategy of expansion by aggressively marketing our union to both public and private construction users as well nonunion plumbing and piping contractors. We utilize both top down and bottom up techniques to expand our contractor base. Plumbers Local 219 is also very involved in the communities we serve to build support for our cause and to seek out the most qualified candidates available for union membership. The success of our union is made possible through the support, productivity and activism of our membership