School Supplies: Look for the Union Label

Going out to buy school supplies with your kids? Take a look at the label before you put it in your cart. Choosing union-made products is one way to make sure your back-to-school dollars support working families and good union jobs.

The AFL-CIO's maintains a list of union-made school supplies to help parents, teachers and schools identify products made by union workers. The list, updated in August 2026, includes everything from notebooks and paper to school lunch trays and milk cartons. 

Union-Made School Supplies

The AFL-CIO list includes:

  • Five-Star notebooks, assorted notebooks and tablets — USW Local 1442
  • Composition notebooks, assorted notebooks and tablets — USW Local 488
  • Huhtamaki school lunch trays — USW Local 819
  • Pactiv Evergreen school milk cartons from its Turlock, California, facility — USW Local 819
  • Various grades of brown paper — USW Local 13-189
  • Hammermill, Accent Opaque, HP Papers, Williamsburg Offset and Springhill paper products — USW Locals 497 and 4-5
  • Acco Brands, including:
    • Mead — planners, calendars, notebooks and business supplies
    • Five Star — notebooks, binders, filler paper and school supplies
    • At-a-Glance — daily planners, monthly calendars and address books
  • Dixon Ticonderoga products, including products associated with Pacon — USW Local 2-1822
  • Roaring Spring blank books — USW Local 488
  • Master Lock locks, safes and other products — UAW Local 469 

Made in America Doesn't Always Mean Union-Made

There's an important distinction when shopping for school supplies: Made in USA does not necessarily mean union-made.

If your goal is to support union workers, don't simply look for an American flag or the words "Made in USA." Look for the union label. The AFL-CIO list identifies the union local associated with the products it includes, giving consumers a way to specifically seek out union-made goods. 

That's particularly important because a company can manufacture different products in different facilities, and not every product from an American company is necessarily union-made.

Look for the union label. Buy union-made when you can. And put your back-to-school dollars to work supporting working families.