The GOP War on Labor, Today and Every Day
If you have today off, thank a union member.
That includes you, too, Republicans.
Because, as we all know, Republicans love to confess their adoration for American workers. They love boasting about their commitment to "America First" by bringing home American jobs that had been shipped overseas. They love showcasing the American autoworker in their campaign videos and fundraising emails. They love receiving endorsements from local fire and police unions and often bring them onstage during rallies. In Republicans' minds, they are the true champions of the American working class.
Reality tells a different story.
Today, union membership in America is at a 40-year low, down over 50% from its peak year of 1983. Less than 1 in 10 workers is now part of a union. This is despite the successful first-time union formations with Amazon, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, and Chipotle over the past 5 years. Even with these recent successes, labor participation as a whole has declined due largely to the shockwaves of the 1981 PATCO strike, in which President Ronald Reagan successfully fired over 11,000 unionized air traffic controllers. That move opened the floodgates for private employers to ramp up aggressive anti-union tactics in the years and decades to follow, resulting in the over 50% decrease in union membership. Even with President Joe Biden becoming the first sitting president to walk a picket line and infusing $36 billion to help save the pensions of over 350,000 union workers and retirees, historically low union participation rates persisted throughout his term. While Kamala Harris did end up winning union households by 12 percentage points in 2024, there were some notable holdouts, such as the Teamsters Union and the International Association of Fire Fighters, which refused to endorse either presidential candidate.
Republicans consistently offer nothing to the working men and women of this country. It is Democrats and Democratic state and local governments that continuously work to implement policies that benefit union families, from an increased minimum wage to paid family and medical leave to safer working conditions to more affordable childcare. Republicans oppose all of these things, yet still manage to receive over 40% of the union vote each and every presidential election. Due to systemic racism and historic barriers, people of color today make up less than 24% of all union workers, even though they represent 41% of the population. There can be no doubt that the Leopards Eating Faces Party successfully includes countless White men who are active union members. While not all of them spoke at the Republican National Convention like Teamsters President Sean O'Brien, they still willingly chose to vote against their best interests by casting their vote for Donald Trump in 2024.
To be a union member casting a vote for Donald Trump clearly shows complete and utter disregard for every single woman, non-White, LGBT, or immigrant colleague who works beside you, and it shows that you put your privilege above the safety and well-being of your peers. There is an unhealthy strand of misogynoir in today's labor movement, a fact seldom talked about but one that cannot be ignored. Labor isn't the only field in which this misogynoir exists, but because labor's history is so overwhelmingly White and male, there has emerged a consistent segment of workers who insist their votes against Hillary Clinton and now Kamala Harris had nothing to do with the candidate's gender. Meanwhile, we all know that if the candidates were named Harold Clinton and Kevin Harris, the union votes in 2016 and 2024 would have looked a lot different. Union members might not admit this, but deep down inside, they know it to be true.
America is great when its labor movement is great. But right now, we're seeing a low point in our country's labor history. Republicans have waged a 40-year war against unions because they know the power of unions when they are strong. They know how the labor rallying cry of "When we fight, we win!" resonates with so many working men and women. They know how effective labor unions are at turning out the vote. And they know that Democrats and Democrats alone understand the true plight of the working class and are the only ones actively working on legislation to improve working conditions. Republicans talk the talk when it comes to making promises to organized labor, but Democrats actually deliver at the local, state, and national levels. Because of this, Republicans will continue undermining labor unions and the working women and men of this country for the foreseeable future.
Today is about more than a holiday. It's about history. It's about hard-fought labor wins that gave us the weekend, the 40-hour work week, overtime pay, and vacation pay in this country. It's about the continued struggle against mega corporations like Walmart and Amazon that fight tooth and nail against local unionizing. It's about recognizing that Democrats are the party of the working class, and Republicans would like nothing more than to remove worker protections to make America unsafe and unhealthy once again. Joe Biden fought for unions. Kamala Harris fought and would have continued to fight for unions. Democratic mayors and governors are fighting for unions. Blue state governments are fighting for unions. Come 2026 and 2028, there is only one political party actively working to make life better for the working women and men of America, and that party is the Democrats.
Remember this not only today, but every day, moving forward.