There is no turning back on Labor Day

In the workers’ movement we honor our past, learn from it and fight for our future.

Today, 17,000 CWA members who work at AT&T Southeast are fighting. They are striking because AT&T is not negotiating in good faith. When the CWA Board of Directors authorized this strike, we knew our members would stand strong, and they have. They are standing firm on the picket line because they know that previous generations of CWA members fought for what we have today. They have the full support of our union, including financial support from our Member Relief Fund.

Our union began as a movement of telephone workers banding together to improve working conditions. These workers fought to form a union, and AT&T, the largest employer at the time, promoted corporate-controlled sham unions to successfully destroy the independent labor movement in the industry.

It wasn’t until 1935, when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it, that communications workers were given the freedom to form permanent unions. The NLRA prohibited unfair labor practices – such as the formation of company unions – and protected collective action by workers to improve their working conditions. In addition, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was created to enforce the NLRA.

Last month, as our AT&T Southeast workers prepared to strike, Donald Trump laughed with notorious union-buster Elon Musk about firing striking workers. Today that would be illegal, but if elected president, Trump will have the plan and the power to take us back to a time when that didn’t exist.

Donald Trump’s allies, including many of his successors in his administration, want to take us back to the days before the NLRA. Their dangerous, extremist agenda, outlined in a handbook called Project 2025, calls for greater corporate control of workers. They want to appoint NLRB members who will stop enforcing large parts of the NLRA, including the ban on company unions.

We are not going back.

We will not go back because we have the opportunity to elect Kamala Harris, a true champion for working people who has a vision for a future where we all have more control over our lives, not less. Where we have the freedom to join unions and spend time taking care of our families. Where health care and prescription drugs are affordable and our retirement savings are secure.

As Vice President, Kamala Harris invited CWA members and retirees to join the conversation about policies that affect our lives. As a Senator, she was an original co-signer of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act. As Attorney General of the State of California, she fought wage theft, forced unscrupulous major banks to return millions to pension funds, and won over $230 million from pharmaceutical companies that misled patients.

By voting for Senators and Congressmen who stand with us, we are declaring that we will not go back. We will elect representatives who will work to pass legislation that expands the benefits our retirees have earned, not to cut those benefits when they are needed most. We deserve politicians who will fight to solve problems, not fight each other.

Each of us can and must vote. But that alone is not enough. We must also encourage others to learn what is at stake and who is on their side. We must have conversations in the workplace, make phone calls, text messages and knock on doors, spreading the message and making sure every union member’s voice is heard on election day.

This Labor Day, I’m asking you to commit, as vice presidential candidate and coach Tim Walz would say, to “give it your all on the field.” Support our striking workers by visiting a picket line, signing our petition, or contributing to their strike fund. Join with other CWA members and retirees by filling out the form at cwa.org/political to let us know you want to volunteer to help elect candidates who will move our country forward, not backward.

Let us honor our past by fighting together for a more just future.

And see you soon on the picket line!