Our best bet for beating back and defeating Trumpism lies in a revitalized labor movement. Thanks in part to an inspiring surge in workplace organizing in recent years, organized labor is one of the few social forces with the legitimacy, resources, and leverage to expose and fight back against Trump’s sham populism. But can workers and unions continue their forward momentum under the new administration?
Trump has attacked organized labor on multiple fronts, from attempting to terminate unionized federal employees to illegally firing a National Labor Relations Board member. Such fierce opposition to unions has given a green light to corporate America to reassert its dominance. But as the growth of worker-to-worker resistance among federal workers is showing, vicious boss attacks can in certain circumstances be a major spur to labor mobilization and organization. As the union saying goes, sometimes “the boss is the best organizer.”
On the whole, unions are still well-positioned to continue their organizing momentum. Doing so will be critical for beating back Trump’s worst attacks and isolating MAGA by demonstrating the emptiness of its economic populist rhetoric. In this brief post, I lay out five factors that should encourage unions to invest more, not less, into organizing.
1. The economic forces fueling Trumpism also favor labor’s continued resurgence. After the pandemic laid bare the fundamental unfairness of our economic system, workers responded with a burst of union organizing and the most significant strike activity in decades. The same underlying economic forces — chronic economic insecurity and inequality — helped propel Trumpism to a narrow victory in the 2024 elections. But Trump’s actual policies will inevitably exacerbate economic inequality, undermining the Republican Party’s hollow pro-worker rhetoric.
Unlike the party, unions were able to build power and win real security for working people, setting off a record-breaking wave of strikes, organizing against right-to-work laws, and winning minimum wage increases across the country.
With a tight labor market projected for the coming years, employers will have less power to threaten employees who dare to unionize their workplaces and workers will have more bargaining leverage against employers, increasing the chances of successful and headline-grabbing strikes.
US Unemployment Rate. Source and Graph: International Monetary Fund
2. Young worker activism is not going away. As I show in my new book We Are the Union, most of the labor upsurge since 2020 has been driven forward by Gen Z and Millennial workers radicalized by economic inequality, Bernie Sanders, and racial justice struggles. Contrary to what some have suggested, the 2024 election did not register a major shift to the right among young people, but rather a sharp drop in young Democratic turnout.
The recent proliferation of union campaigns across Amazon drivers and at Whole Foods is just the latest instance of a generational uptick that continues to spread across Starbucks, higher education, journalism, and beyond. These “labor-pilled” young activists are unlikely to throw in the towel just because Trump is again in office — if anything, the dramatic failure of establishment Democratic politics (combined with the power deficits of ephemeral street protests) will likely grow the ranks of young people convinced that workplace organizing is the central axis for winning progressive change, not just on issues of economic inequality but also on the wide range of issues animating young activists today, including combatting racism, environmental devastation, and militarism.
3. Unions can still grow under Republican administrations. It’s true that the organizing terrain will be significantly harder under Trump and a hostile National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). But it’s still possible to fight and win even in these conditions.
US labor’s current uptick began with the statewide teachers’ strikes that swept across red states in 2018 during Trump’s first term. And NLRB data shows that putting major resources towards new organizing can go a long way towards counter-balancing the negative impact of an adverse political context.
Unions organized significantly more workers under George W. Bush’s administration than under Barack Obama. Why? The main reason is that the labor movement in the early 2000s was still in the midst of a relatively well-resourced push to organize the unorganized, whereas by the time Obama took office labor had mostly thrown in the towel on external organizing, hoping instead to be saved from above by lobbying establishment Democrats to pass national labor law reform.
4. Labor has huge financial assets at its disposal. According to the latest data from the Department of Labor, unions hold $42 billion in financial assets and only $6.4 billion in debt. These assets — the vast majority of which are liquid assets — can help defend against the coming political attack and be deployed in aggressive organizing drives and strikes. Unions have the financial cushion to go on the offensive while simultaneously defending themselves from regulatory and legislative attacks. This means investing heavily in new organizing, while also funding big campaigns to fight back against Trump and Elon Musk’s drive to decimate public services, public sector unions, and democratic rights.
5. Unions remain popular and trusted. According to a September 2024 Gallup poll, 70% of Americans approve of labor unions, the highest support since the 1950s — even 49% of Republicans these days support unions. Overall, Americans trust organized labor far more than the President, Congress, Big Business, and the media. Strong public support for labor continues to provide fertile ground for a union advance.
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Though it can be hard not to feel discouraged by the daily barrage of cruel, illegal, and often senseless policy, as the saying goes, ‘Don’t Despair, Organize.” Trump is not invincible. Rebuilding a powerful labor movement remains the single most effective path to defeating MAGA, reversing rampant inequalities, and transforming American politics. So take a breath, talk to your co-workers, and get in the fight. It’s only just begun.
