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American workers are taken for granted, and it is critical for the Teamsters Union to make sure this fact is not forgotten. I did so before the Republican National Convention this summer.
The pandemic, for one, amplified the need for workers to be protected, to be paid more, and to enjoy the safety of real job security. Our recent global suffering demonstrated whose labor is deemed essential—and who's making that determination.
It's no secret, though it is a tragedy, that the lowest-paid and hardest-worked Americans are the ones labeled "essential workers." Those Americans staffing hospitals, teaching kids, providing social services, hauling garbage, protecting streets, and stocking grocery shelves—yes, they are essential. But our country keeps them at the back of the line, the last to benefit when companies do well and the last to be rescued when they go bankrupt.
But it wasn't just the pandemic that exposed these vulnerabilities. The decline of union membership over 40 years has reached a tipping point. More workers in more industries have woken up to the embarrassment of runaway corporate greed and the reality that everyone who sacrifices their labor for a paycheck deserves so much more.
More Americans know the truth now—when you don't have a voice on the job, don't have a contract protecting your work, aren't guaranteed raises, and have no defined path to a secure retirement, you are screwed. CEO compensation is the highest it's been. Corporate profits hit new records every year. Wall Street grows stronger but never promises not to crush your 401(k). Home prices are insane. And the federal minimum wage is a joke.
This is not sustainable. And that's why Americans are rediscovering a real solution to the problem—unions.
This Labor Day do not forget your leverage as a worker, no matter your job, title, education, or compensation. You possess extraordinary power and have many options to wield it, and the corporate and political elite know it.
For the first time in American history, 2024 saw labor unions represented on the stages of both the Republican and Democratic national conventions. This is no accident, but it is an oddity that speaks to the power of workers at this time.
I was honored to speak to the American worker in Milwaukee as the first general president of the Teamsters in our 121-year history ever to take that stage. If we have any chance of effectuating change, we need to address the cold reality that working people are crying out for real solutions and getting very little relief from either political party. If it is our fate to be trapped in a two-party system, we cannot rely on just one of them for what we need.
It is the honor of my life to represent more than 1.3 million American workers. In the Teamsters, our democratically elected leaders don't dictate to the membership. We listen. We fight for our members. And we respect them. Because at the end of the day, we work for our members.
And in America, every one of us needs to remember our elected officials work for us.
Despite the fact that the number of Americans currently in labor unions is below 10 percent, we saw both political parties put labor front and center during their conventions this summer for the first time. Amid the anguish of our protracted election cycles, don't lose sight of how significant that is.
There is an undeniable resurgence of union activity in today's America. More workers are walking picket lines. Even more are executing credible strike threats to secure what they've earned. We are winning higher wages across all job classifications. In the Teamsters, we are successfully organizing more than ever, welcoming more than 44,000 new members into our influential union in less than three years.
The Teamsters have strength because workers have power. After decades of disrespect, we are witnessing elected officials realize what workers already know: Unions are not relegated to history books. The system is broken, but not beyond repair. The solution to our economic problems is right in front of us, if we're organized and bold enough to seize it.
From the stage in Milwaukee, I told the American worker that the Teamsters Union is not beholden to any one person or to any political party. And I meant it. We will not do what our predecessors did. Our labor will not be taken for granted. Nor will our votes.
The labor movement is always vulnerable to the same political traps that have kept workers at the back of the line for generations—taking small wins where we can get them, waiting around for the crumbs that will never fill us up. If we want organized labor to truly grow stronger, we cannot allow any of our elected officials to look past what they now see.
We must demand what we're owed; we need to ask for more than we're told we deserve; we must start difficult conversations; and we have to hold our representatives accountable from here on out.
Labor unions must be willing to risk political capital to ensure all members are seen, heard, respected, and protected. Especially now as the weight of political division threatens to distract us at every turn. We cannot bury our heads in bitterness. We should not throw up our hands in hopelessness. We must not be beholden to any party or any politician. We need only remember the value of our labor. It's worth so much.
As a worker in America, you sacrifice your labor every day. Never sacrifice your leverage — remember it, use it, preserve it. You have so much of it. More eyeballs from on high are paying attention to what you're going to do with that leverage. If we rinse and repeat labor's stale cycle of settling for empty promises from those we elect, we will have no one to blame but ourselves when we find corporate interests still first in line.
Sean M. O'Brien is the General President of the Teamsters Union.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
