How Union Members Pay It Forward

Anna Bueker went to work at the BFGoodrich plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in her early 20s and began building a good life with the wages and benefits provided by her United Steelworkers (USW) contract.

But over the next several years, as she navigated divorce and life as a single mom, that contract took on even greater importance.

It delivered the resources she needed to feed and care for her child. It enabled her to keep a roof over their heads. And it provided stability during a tumultuous time.

That gratitude not only stayed with her but also fueled her efforts to help about 280 workers at Canpack in nearby Muncie, Indiana, as they mounted their own union drive and voted to join the USW in late 2025.

Many more workers need the USW as much as she still does, figured Bueker, a steward with Local 715L, one of a growing number of activists across the country who draw strength from their unions and then use it to empower others.

“Being part of a union and having a good union job put me on a path that I don’t think a lot of single women have available to them,” she said, noting that even as her life changed radically, her lifestyle didn’t.

“That’s something I really held on to,” said Bueker, a materials handler and tire builder at BFGoodrich.

More and more workers want to join unions amid the high grocery prices, spiraling health care costs and other failures of today’s uncertain economy.

Bueker and other union members, grateful for all they won and passionate about seeing others get ahead, stand ready to help them over the finish line.

After all, no one understands workers as well as those who walk in the same boots. No one grasps the life-changing gains of a contract like workers already lifted up by them. No one knows the power of solidarity better than union members who wield it every day.

“I could help other workers? Man, that sounds awesome,” Bueker recalled thinking before volunteering to help her peers at Canpack, who make aluminum beverage cans for a conglomerate based in Poland.

“I think it helps a lot of people to know I also work in manufacturing day in and day out. I know exactly what it’s like to be on that floor and to feel like I’m just a number to management,” said Bueker, who wrote postcards to workers at Canpack, called to check in with them and provided other support in the run-up to the successful union vote in 2025.

These kinds of connections—and the willingness of activists like Bueker to share their personal stories—helped thousands of other workers decide to join unions in recent years.

Among other examples, USW Local 650 members at the Bobcat plant in Gwinner, North Dakota, helped colleagues at other company locations join the union. USW Local 572 members at Graphic Packaging in Macon, Georgia, assisted 1,400 workers at the nearby Blue Bird bus manufacturing company with their successful effort to join the USW in 2023.

And USW Local 8888 members, who make nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for the Navy in Newport News, Virginia, are helping a group of city workers there in the midst of a union drive.

While workers seek decent wages, safer working conditions and retirement security, they also crave the bond that union members share and the seat at the table that a contract provides, observed Bueker.

“You have the opportunity to change your workplace for the better,” she told the workers at Canpack.

“I think people really appreciate being empowered,” she said, pointing out that unions force employers to share control. “Management doesn’t get all of it anymore. Now, we all have a say, and we’re not under the thumb of management anymore.”

Rick Hines, who started work at Canpack before production at the plant even began three years ago, said workers talked about unionizing right from the start.

Their quest to ensure a level playing field for all and to hold management accountable ultimately led to the union drive in 2025, said Hines, whose cousin is a USW member at another Indiana workplace.

“Everyone wants fairness across the board,” he said.

Hines described the support and guidance of the USW representatives as “spot on,” noting they explained how their contract delivers a middle-class life and how collective action creates the kinds of opportunities that workers never had before.

“Anything can happen through bargaining,” observed Hines, recalling how helpful it was to hear directly from other manufacturing workers. “Things are going to change. It’s not going to be just Canpack’s way anymore.”

Just as important, the USW activists demonstrated an empathy and solidarity that not only impressed Hines but also cemented his decision to vote for the union.

“This is the family I want to be around,” he said.

Bueker feels the same way. While still serving as a 715L steward and mentor, she plans to continue stepping up for other workers who seek help forming a union.

“I just love that kind of work,” she said. “Whatever needs to be done, I will do it.”

This article was produced by the Independent Media Institute.

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