Today, on International Workers’ Day, hundreds of organizers (unions, pro-democracy organizations, and ordinary individuals) are calling for a day of no work, no shopping, and no school (to the extent people are able) in support of a three-part agenda:
Tax the Rich: Our families, not their fortunes, come first.
No ICE. No war. No private army serving authoritarian power.
Expand democracy, not corporate power. Hands off our vote.
The first item aims squarely at income inequality, which has exploded and intensified by under-taxation (or non-taxation) of giant corporations and the mega-rich. An agenda that slashes benefits for working people and cuts funding for libraries, schools, advanced medical research, etc. to pay for billionaires’ tax cuts is as unsustainable as it is immoral.
The second item — opposing brutal, lawless domestic shock troops and an unconstitutional, reckless war that has pummeled our military readiness and worsened the affordability — is overwhelmingly popular with voters. A large majority of Americans oppose a cruel, impulsive, and vindictive bully’s ICE overreach and dangerous war. Violence at home and violence as the central feature of our foreign policy reflect an authoritarian mindset in which domination is the only acceptable outcome.
And the last on the list, democracy protection, gained new urgency on Wednesday. It recognizes the threats from Trump (unconstitutional executive orders, ballot seizures, conspiracy mongering) and the Supreme Court (who just eviscerated the Voting Rights Act) to free and fair elections.
The call for an economic slowdown/shutdown first sounded in Minneapolis. The day of economic forbearance was widely observed; events culminated in a massive rally. To the extent they can create a visible ripple in the ordinary routine of Americans and bring people together once more in common purpose, the May Day Strong organizers can add another form of protest to their toolkit to keep the Resistance engaged, enthusiastic, and emboldened.
This year’s May Day underscores the central role organized labor has played in the Resistance. Expert at turning out people and networking, they have been a mainstay at the No Kings Day events. Whether organizing mass events, participating in campaigns, or fighting for gains for workers, unions play a critical role in preserving democratic institutions.
As the Center for American Progress reported:
[U]nions inform their members of the benefits of democratic participation, disclose which elected officials have provided the most support, and encourage members to vote for pro-worker politicians. Therefore, it is no surprise that research shows weakening unions lead to fewer working-class candidates serving in state legislatures and Congress.
While being a union member makes a person more likely to vote and participate in politics, unions also increase participation among nonmembers, as nonunion members are often the recipients of union efforts to educate and mobilize.
One of the historic roles of organized labor has been combating the concentration of wealth and income inequality (the first agenda item for May Day Strong). The Economic Policy Institute explained: “By bringing workers’ collective power to the bargaining table, unions are able to win better wages and benefits for working people—reducing income inequality as a result.” As union power decreased (and the tax code allowed the rich to pay less or no taxes), income inequality increased, creating a despair that democracy could not create shared prosperity. Unions can slow the exponential growth in wealth and power of the super-rich, as enumerable studies have confirmed.
“When union density is high, nonunion workers benefit too because unions effectively set broader standards—including higher wages—which nonunion employers must meet to attract and retain the workers they need,” EPI found. “The combination of the direct wage effect for union members and this spillover effect for nonunion workers means unions are crucial to raising wages for working people and reducing income inequality.”
Unions’ impact on democracy can extend beyond the realm of wages and working conditions to foster a culture conducive to democracy and equal opportunity:
High union density is consistently associated with a much broader set of positive spillover effects across multiple dimensions: from higher wages and better benefits; to more equitable tax systems; safer workplaces; stronger public services; and healthier, more inclusive democracies. Unions don’t just improve workers’ paychecks—they shape the social and political fabric of the communities they operate in, lifting standards for union and nonunion workers alike, while their political advocacy helps to drive an array of strongly positive outcomes, especially in states where unions represent a sizeable share of the workforce.
However, just as important as their organizing work and their advocacy for working people, unions have played an outsized role in litigation, a key brake on Trump’s accumulation of power. If you peruse through Just Security’s litigation tracker of 784 (!) cases, you will see that organized labor, including AFSME, AFGE, AFT, UAW, UFW, and the AFL-CIO, have repeatedly brought suit to stop: illegal layoffs, efforts to strip bargaining rights from government programs, termination of grants, changes in visa rules, destruction of independent boards and agencies, turning off funds for schools that have DEI programs, attempts to curtail workplace safety regulation, privacy violations, changes in student debt rules, dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Education, violation of First Amendment, ICE raids utilizing racial profiling, and destruction of Voice of America.
The eye-popping list underscores unions’ willingness to fight for benefits, protections, and rights that impact all Americans, union or not. Take, for example, the lawsuit that AFT’s Texas chapter brought against Texas’s state education agency, challenging investigations into and discipline of teachers who communicated in private email accounts their views of Charlie Kirk after his murder. “This was a state-sponsored attack on teachers because of what they expressed privately to their friends and colleagues and family,” Randi Weingarten, president of the national American Federal of Teachers, told the New York Times. “You can’t have First Amendment rights for some and not for all.”
In sum, organized labor has been an undaunted, unwavering, and unabashed champion in the success of the Resistance, fulfilling its long-established role as a combatant against income inequality and democratic backsliding. Without their multi-faceted participation in the fight to save democracy, we would be much closer to a Viktor Orban-style autocracy. We salute organized labor as a critical player in the battle to restore and enhance our democracy.
Check here to find events near you that will allow you to make your voice heard on this historic day.
Organized labor is civic infrastructure, and the point about unions mobilizing nonmembers is the strongest argument in the piece.
A worker who votes because her shop steward asked her to is democracy doing its actual job. But the behavioral test for a one-day strike isn’t turnout, it’s leverage, and leverage is density.
Density has been falling for forty years while the rallies have gotten bigger and the rhetoric sharper, which should tell us something.
Build the slow thing that makes a strike costly to ignore, or the visible thing keeps being the only thing we have.
Johan 🐌
All workers need to organize if they ever expect to stand on a level playing field with corporations and the oligarchs. Yes, unions have defects, but so does every human institution, and these can be improved upon. At least unions are democracies, and improvement starts with who the members elect to lead them.