Donald Trump has staged a year of “unrelenting attacks on working people,” according to the head of the largest federation of the labor unions in the US. Now they’re preparing to fight back.
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said it was gearing up to challenge the US president’s “Billionaire First” agenda in 2026 – and drive candidates in key elections to stand up for “struggling” Americans.
In an interview with the Guardian, she described how the federation has pushed to restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers, and filed lawsuits against the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken unions and worker protections. “People were pissed,” said Shuler.
The House of Representatives passed a bill on 11 December that would restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers in response to Trump’s executive orders that stripped the rights from more than 1 million federal government employees.
“It was through a lot of good old-fashioned organizing,” said Shuler, who accused the president of overseeing “the biggest attack on unions in our history” by moving to eliminate collective bargaining for federal workers.
The AFL-CIO is now steeling itself for a fight to pass the bill in the Senate in January, kicking off what it likely to be another hectic year. The threat of another government shutdown looms at the end of January. The fight over extending Affordable Care Act subsidies is far from over.
“We’re organizing as we speak,” said Shuler. “We can move actual people, in workplaces, in every city, in every state, across the country.”
Affordability has come into sharp focus, with inflation still stubbornly above typical levels, and many Americans grappling with rising bills and prices. The federation intends to build momentum into the 2026 midterm elections on such kitchen table issues, according to Shuler, who said labor organizations were already reaching out to working people, canvassing and knocking on doors, in an effort to break through the noise.
“People are fed up,” she said. “They’re saturated. I think they’re distrustful of institutions and the media. All of the folks that we have come to rely on over the years seem to be waning in trust, and there’s only one organization left that people do trust, and that’s the labor movement, unions. Our credibility and trust is actually going up. And so we think that we have to capitalize on what our sweet spot is, which is using our sphere of influence.”
About 68% of Americans support labor unions, according to Gallup, despite a downward trend of union density in the US over the past several decades, which has correlated with the growth of income inequality.
Trump promised to lower costs on day one and create good jobs, especially in manufacturing, noted Shuler. Those promises have not yet been fulfilled. Trump described apprehension over affordability as a “hoax”, and sought to downplay economic concerns such as the sputtering job market.
“That’s not what people are experiencing,” Shuler said of Trump’s narrative. “They’re having to run up their credit-card debt. It’s at an all-time high, just to afford groceries. They’re looking at how they’re going to make their car payment, how they’re going to afford rent.
“When I’m out on the road talking to people, housing and healthcare are two issues everybody is feeling. And that is not on the ‘Billionaire First’ agenda.”
Trump is “rewarding the big corporations and the rich” while many Americans are “actually struggling”, she added. “I think that’s going to come into sharper focus as we go on into 2026. And that is what the labor movement is going to be very clear on. What are workers’ demands? Who is standing with us when it comes to candidates, and elected officials? And which side are you on?”
Thousands of Starbucks baristas are currently on strike, as they campaign for the world’s largest coffee chain to grant them their first union contract.
“This strike has really brought it in sharp focus, this divide that we’re seeing of an economy that’s working for the very rich, for the billionaires, the corporations and working people are piecing it together,” said Shuler. “They’re often working two or three jobs just to get by.
“The future of this economy is absolutely in peril, if you think about how inequality is rampant, but also AI and advanced technology is going to continue to create this divide between the ultra rich and everyday people just trying to make a living.
“It’s only going to get worse if we don’t get the guardrails in place, have more power for working people to negotiate what they need and bring some balance back into our economy.”
The White House was contacted for comment.
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