AFL-CIO president: Union workers are powerful. We will decide this election.

The AFL-CIO represents nearly 13 million workers in our federation across 60 unions. This time every year, we come together to put the labor back in Labor Day.

As much as we love the barbecues, the mattress sales — this is our week. This is about recognizing and appreciating the workers who make this country run.

Last year, we started a conversation about how workers are doing in this country. Some of these numbers may surprise you: 70% of Americans support unions, among young people under the age of 30, it’s nine in 10.

Union workers are continuing to find their power in two very distinct ways.

First: We are the ones who are going to decide this presidential election. In swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Nevada that are going to come down to 1% or 2%, union voters are 20% of the electorate. That’s one in every five voters.

And second: Our workers are powerful because they have something that is so rare today — the trust of those around them. Union members are credible political messengers. They can connect with each other and with the people in their communities in a way no one else can.

Having the hard conversations

Many of us have felt like it’s hard to just have a conversation about politics with someone we disagree with. Or we’ve talked to someone who has figured out what team we play for, and then just tuned us out. Or — let’s admit it — maybe we’ve done it to someone else.

Yet in a room full of union members, that’s not how it plays out. When you ask a union member who their most trusted source in the world is on politics, it’s not their friends, family or loved ones. It’s their fellow union members.

It’s not hard to see why union workers trust each other.

We talk to each other in the break room every morning. We carpool home. We’re on the factory floor together, or in the teacher’s lounge, or outside on a construction site, braving the elements, while everyone else is asleep. We know each other, inside and out.

And when you combine that trust with this organizing machine we’ve built, this ability to connect with our members, our families, our neighbors and mobilize on a dime, you have a movement that can actually deliver voters — and win an election.

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The power of unions

Workers are growing our power in this country in a way we haven’t been in a generation. Almost a quarter of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago were union delegates, more than we’ve had in a long, long time. We are seen as a force to be reckoned with.

And it’s about damn time.

When I travel the country and talk to working people — our members, but also people who aren’t yet in a union — they tell me they’re tired of the way things have been going. They're tired of going to the grocery store, and seeing it take more out of their paychecks than it ever has. They’re tired for people their peers in the sandwich generation, trying to care for their kids and their parents at the exact same time.

What I hear from the young generation of workers coming up is that they can’t believe there used to be a time when you could work one full-time job, and afford to make a down payment on a home.

That’s the daily reality for people all over this country.

Workers in this country have never been more productive. We have never created the kind of wealth for companies that we are creating right now. But it’s not benefitting our workers.

We need to fundamentally re-write the rules — by winning elections, by passing laws, by having the right to stand up for ourselves — if we’re going to balance the scales.

All over the country, people are realizing there’s a movement where you actually can fight back, where you actually can get some power and some control over your future.

It’s not about your race, your gender, age, orientation or, religion, it’s just about standing up for your freedom.

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Strategy, organizing pay off

If you feel tired or alone right now, think about autoworkers in Chattanooga, right after they made history at Volkswagen, voting for representation by the United Auto Workers.

Or our Machinists in Seattle, who filled a baseball stadium to tell Boeing to give them a fair contract.

Or our sisters in the National Women’s Soccer League players association, who rewrote the sports rulebook and got rid of their draft, setting a new standard that gives them a voice in where they work, like every other worker in this country.

These wins are not accidents.

We’ve invested in our grassroots network all over the country, building local power and organizing capacity.

Nearly half a million workers went on strike in 2023, a year that saw more than 2,700 union election filings, the most we’ve ever seen. Some 900,000 workers in unions won double-digit pay increases last year alone.

That is power.

What’s the point of building all this power on the ground, if we don’t use it when it really matters? When absolutely everything is on the line?

In those swing states we talked about earlier — Michigan. Pennsylvania. Michigan. Wisconsin. Nevada — union support is driving up the margin of support for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

We are the difference.

How we win

Our movement is full of joy and love, a way to have some fun and make your life better at the same time. We have the trust — with our union members, and the spouses, children and parents that we bring along. There’s a reason they call it “a union household,” which doubles and triples our impact.

We have a well-oiled organizing machine in every state, especially in battleground states. We have workers who are actually trained in how to have those tough conversations, how to steer them toward kitchen-table issues, and how to challenge someone, respectfully, if we need to.

A few months ago I walked up to a guy in a MAGA hat on a picket line. In any other situation, the two of us probably wouldn’t have much to talk about. But as we started to talk about politics, he looked at me and said, “I’ll hear you out, because I know we both love our unions.”

Those conversations are the key to everything.

Talking to each other again. Empathy and grace, instead of vitriol. Coming together to solve problems that actually matter to our families.

When we fight, we win.

Liz Shuler is president of the AFL-CIO. These remarks are adapted from a speech delivered to AFL-CIO members on Aug. 27, 2024.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: On Labor Day, don't underestimate the power of unions in this election