{"id":8595,"date":"2025-12-25T12:19:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T12:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/12\/25\/us-labor-unions-gear-up-to-fight-against-trumps-billionaire-first-agenda-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T12:19:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T12:19:19","slug":"us-labor-unions-gear-up-to-fight-against-trumps-billionaire-first-agenda-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/12\/25\/us-labor-unions-gear-up-to-fight-against-trumps-billionaire-first-agenda-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"US labor unions gear up to fight against Trump\u2019s \u2018Billionaire First\u2019 agenda – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Donald Trump<\/a> has staged a year of \u201cunrelenting attacks on working people,\u201d according to the head of the largest federation of the labor unions in the US. Now they\u2019re preparing to fight back.<\/p>\n

Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said it was gearing up to challenge the US president\u2019s \u201cBillionaire First\u201d agenda in 2026 \u2013 and drive candidates in key elections to stand up for \u201cstruggling\u201d Americans.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Guardian, she described how the federation has pushed to restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers, and filed<\/a> lawsuits against the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to weaken unions and worker protections. \u201cPeople were pissed,\u201d said Shuler.<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives passed <\/a>a bill on 11 December that would restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers in response to Trump\u2019s executive orders that stripped the rights from more than 1 million federal government employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was through a lot of good old-fashioned organizing,\u201d said Shuler, who accused the president of overseeing \u201cthe biggest attack on unions in our history\u201d by moving to eliminate collective bargaining for federal workers.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> looms at the end of January. The fight over extending Affordable Care Act subsidies<\/a> is far from over.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re organizing as we speak,\u201d said Shuler. \u201cWe can move actual people, in workplaces, in every city, in every state, across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Affordability has come into sharp focus, with inflation still stubbornly above typical levels<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are fed up,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re saturated. I think they\u2019re 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\u2019s only one organization left that people do trust, and that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 68% of Americans support labor unions, according to Gallup<\/a>, despite a downward trend of union density in the US over the past several decades, which has correlated with the growth of income inequality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 \u201choax\u201d, and sought to downplay economic concerns such as the sputtering job market<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not what people are experiencing,\u201d Shuler said of Trump\u2019s narrative. \u201cThey\u2019re having to run up their credit-card debt. It\u2019s at an all-time high<\/a>, just to afford groceries. They\u2019re looking at how they\u2019re going to make their car payment, how they\u2019re going to afford rent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m out on the road talking to people, housing and healthcare are two issues everybody is feeling. And that is not on the \u2018Billionaire First\u2019 agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump is \u201crewarding the big corporations and the rich\u201d while many Americans are \u201cactually struggling\u201d, she added. \u201cI think that\u2019s 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\u2019 demands? Who is standing with us when it comes to candidates, and elected officials? And which side are you on?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/gu-island><\/figure>\n

Thousands of Starbucks baristas are currently on strike<\/a>, as they campaign for the world\u2019s largest coffee chain to grant them their first union contract.<\/p>\n

<\/gu-island><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis strike has really brought it in sharp focus, this divide that we\u2019re seeing of an economy that\u2019s working for the very rich, for the billionaires, the corporations and working people are piecing it together,\u201d said Shuler. \u201cThey\u2019re often working two or three jobs just to get by.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only going to get worse if we don\u2019t get the guardrails in place, have more power for working people to negotiate what they need and bring some balance back into our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump has staged a year of \u201cunrelenting attacks on working people,\u201d according to the head of the largest federation of the labor unions in the US. Now they\u2019re preparing to fight back. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said it was gearing up to challenge the US president\u2019s \u201cBillionaire First\u201d agenda in 2026 \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}