Liz Shuler, president of the country’s largest union, says support for unions is growing amid changing working conditions and labor disputes across the country.
In her comments Tuesday at the AFL-CIO’s first State of the Union event in Washington, she cited polls showing that support for unions runs across party lines. The AFL-CIO commissioned a survey A poll conducted by GBAO, a Democratic polling firm, found that 91 percent of Democratic respondents and 52 percent of Republicans support unions, with even more people supporting the right to strike.
United Auto Workers union at Detroit’s “big three” auto companies elected with overwhelming majority August 25 to authorize a strike if no agreement is reached with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis before their contracts expire on September 14.
Shuler called the vote part of a trend toward increased union activity in the face of a “systematic attack” on workers. Those attacks include numerous state-level laws that make it tough to unionize and the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 decision allowing workers in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying union dues.
“What’s different this Labor Day is the awakening that’s happening across the country,” Shuler said. “That’s true in Detroit, where just a few days ago 97% of our UAW members said they were ready to walk off the job and fight back against the Big Three.”
There have been more than 200 strikes so far this year involving 320,000 workers, she said, noting that this is ten times as many strikers as two years ago.
“It’s been a long time since this country has seen such a united workforce,” she said. “A long time.”
Support for unions reflects an uncertain future for many Americans, Shuler said.
The shift to a gig economy has left workers uncertain about their long-term financial security, she said.
Technological advances in artificial intelligence could lend a hand workers do their jobs better, she said, but they also threaten them. She called on companies that exploit artificial intelligence to address workers’ concerns about the technology.
The concerns felt across the country are also having an impact on union members, Shuler said, pointing to issues that may have appealed more to time-honored Democratic union supporters than the bipartisan support shown in opinion polls.
Workers are concerned about climate change and democratic issues such as voting rights, abortion rights and censorship in schools, she said. Unions are committed to electing politicians who represent these values, she said.
“We will not be silent when extremist politicians attack our rights: our right to vote and have our votes counted, our right to read the books we want to read, our right to think and speak freely at work and at play,” she said. “We will show up, organize and vote.”
Unions would support President Joe Biden in his re-election campaign next year, Shuler said, praising the president’s work in providing federal spending for infrastructure.
Biden championed infrastructure improvements and supported the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill Congress passed in 2021.
The law protects millions of jobs, she said, not just in construction and transportation but also in the service sector. Every job created by federal spending should be unionized, Shuler said.
Biden has demanded Autoworkers and manufacturers should work together and reach an agreement before their contract expires.
According to a White House pool report, Biden said on the day of the UAW vote that he had “spoken with” the union and was “concerned” about the prospect of a strike.
