For many of us, the holidays bring that all-too familiar sense of dread – a sinking feeling that there are only a few weeks left until Christmas, yet many gifts left to buy. But this year, there’s hope.

The team at Labor 411 wanted to make your Christmas shopping a little easier this year. So we created the exclusive Labor 411 Holiday Shopping List, where you can buy dozens of great gifts for family and friends while helping to rebuild America’s middle class.

Labor 411 Test Kitchen is just in time for the holidays! We’re sharing a recipe for homemade Eggnog! Eggnog is THE traditional holiday beverage, and we’ve got a recipe to make it using all union made ingredients! You’ll find the union brands listed next to each item. This quintessential holiday beverage is perfect to share with your friends and family.

Be forewarned: this recipe contains a little bit of alcohol.  Do not consume alcohol if you are underage.

What better way to kick off the Buy Union, Buy American month of December than with a handy list of the best in union made clothing – starting with our friends in the Northeast. Proud members of UNITE HERE associated with the New England Joint Board (NEJB) make some of the finest clothing in facilities located throughout Massachusetts. These union members’ hard work and dedication to quality has earned them a first-class reputation for the great clothing that they make.

The next time you go shopping, check out these clothes below made by UNITE HERE members and consider buying union made. And stay tuned for future lists of additional Union clothing manufacturers. Or click  on the “Apparel” link here for a complete list of union-made clothing options.

When most people hear the phrase, “union made,” they assume, reasonably, that the product or service in question was actually made by union members.

Apparently, one company disagrees with that premise. ‘Union Made’ – a very upscale clothing store in San Francisco and Los Angeles is very aware that it is selling products that are mostly NOT union made. But it is stealing our good name and reputation anyway.

What’s better than a good beer?

A good UNION beer!

Each time you buy a union beer, you’re helping support good middle class American jobs. Thousands of union members of all over North America produce quality beer and do so while earning fair wages and good benefits.

By Michael Messina

I am a fan of baseball. I am also a Giants fan, and needless to say these past few weeks have been both torturous and blissful. And because I am posting this entry on a web site that was originally devoted to the city of Los Angeles, I’m asking you Dodgers fans to bear with me (The recent past for the Dodgers organization has been tumultuous to say the least, and I firmly believe next year will be better for them, but I digress). Without even looking for it, what I am now calling the Union World Series plopped right into my lap with the two great cities of San Francisco and Detroit going head-to-head for the whole ball of wax.

According to a recent survey, more Americans than ever will be getting in the Halloween spirit this year. Halloween has now become one of the fastest growing and most widely loved holidays in America. We here at Labor 411 love Halloween because it’s all about the candy- and so much of it is union made! You can get a complete list of union-made candy by clicking here.

Sometimes buying union candy can be confusing, mostly to do with what we call “bridge companies”, which can make some of their products both in the U.S. and out of the country. So if a company is listed in our directory but you’ve heard they make candy out of the country, just check the label. The label will say if the candy was made somewhere other than the U.S.

We dare you to try these creepy, squiggly, Halloween-tastic union recipes below. We have one for kids and one for adults made will all union products!

By Michael Messina

Lasting institutions have never been built on a whim. In this Internet age I have seen millions of less-than-inspirational ideas thrown up on that glowing screen and it’s often difficult to predict which ones will stick. Labor 411 is not one of those transient ideas. It is part of a greater movement, and it is held up by you, and by an affirmation of those leading the movement.

That’s where the Labor 411 Foundation comes in. We are proud to say that several major unions and leaders on the labor front are on board with Labor 411 and its buy-union message. They, like I, discovered an unmatched tool to help bolster the American middle class.

When I first starting tracking organized labor and all of its ideals, I found myself in unfamiliar territory.