Union Made Promotional Products: What is a Bug?

Some of our clients are in or serve the union trades. Finding promotions that filled their needs for USA made products, as well as union made, proved to be quite a challenge. Many online promo shopping sites don’t identify country of origin, much less whether it’s union made. Then there are those that sell promotional products from overseas–where fair trade may not be standard like it is in the United States–and then imprint in a union shop so they can plop a union bug on it. We’ll call shenanigans on that.

So let’s talk about the union bugs and what they mean for your organization.

First of all, a union “bug” is a small seal that is imprinted, impressed or tagged on a product to identify that it has been manufactured or produced in a union shop. This is especially critical for union affiliated organizations to imprint to show support for either their own members or members of fellow unions. The bug identifies both the union and the local group that manufactured the item.

There are two situations where a union bug is allowed: 1) When the entire promotional product and imprinting is done by a union factory; or, 2) When ONLY the imprinting is done in a union shop. Only products featured on USAandUnionMadePromoShop.com as “US & Union Made & Imprinted” or “US Made (non-Union) & Union Imprinted” are eligible to include a union bug. We do not allow a union bug to be placed on any item that is made outside of the United States.

Ironically, I’ve seen some union locals who completely disregard the union bug issue when it comes to promotional products… although they may be very vocal about supporting their rank and file membership otherwise. This is a public relations disaster waiting to happen. Be authentic people, especially with promotions celebrating Labor Day. At the minimum, use Made in the USA promotional products for any effort supporting American workers.

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