Labor Day this year takes on a special and urgent significance. As we honor the sacrifices that generations of workers made to secure our most basic rights and freedoms, we are also facing some of the most significant threats to progress in modern times.
But as our labor movement faces strong headwinds, we are also experiencing renewed energy and momentum — as skyrocketing inequality and rising costs ignite public outrage and the desire for change. We must be clear-eyed and focused about what’s at stake and organize with courage and resolve to successfully fight the powerful interests aligned against working people.
We invite all New Yorkers to join members of 1199SEIU as we march up Fifth Ave. under the banner of “Power in Unity” at the Labor Parade this coming Saturday. From nurses and home care workers to teachers, construction workers, delivery drivers and hotel staff, working people are standing up, speaking out, and demanding the right to live in dignity.
It is almost impossible to detail all the ways, big and small, petty and cruel, that Donald Trump and Republican leaders, backed by billionaires and corporate donors, are trying to erase decades of progress. Union rights, workplace protections, and the viability of our social safety net are at stake.
Many of the rollbacks are directed towards industries employing high percentages of immigrants, women, and people of color. They range from removing seatbelt requirements for employer-provided transportation for agricultural workers, reversing a proposed rule for laborers to have the right to water, shade, and rest breaks, to eliminating overtime and minimum wage protections for home care workers. Nearly 400,000 staff of the Department of Veterans Affairs, tasked with providing health care and other critical services to those who served our nation, just had their union contracts terminated and their right to collectively bargain revoked.
Soon, millions of Americans will be suffering devastating consequences from the preposterously named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which makes the largest cuts to safety net programs ever, including gutting Medicaid by $1 trillion. 16 million people, including 1.5 million New Yorkers, will lose their health care coverage.
This spike in the number of uninsured will be disastrous for the entire health system, especially on struggling safety-net and rural hospitals that will be forced to cut services and, in some cases, to close entirely. We will see longer wait times and higher costs for everyone — not just those on Medicaid. People on Affordable Care Plans (ACA) plans will now face unnecessary and burdensome red tape to enroll and keep their health insurance, and those with employer-based insurance plans will see higher premiums too.
At a time when so many Americans are struggling to afford groceries and other basic needs, Republicans slashed nearly $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which helps families with children, veterans, and seniors afford groceries. Trump’s bill is diverting huge sums of money for permanent tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and to quadruple the budget for immigration raids and detention camps.
Republican leaders justified the bill by touting window-dressing measures that are ostensibly for the benefit of working families but are riddled with limitations and strings attached. This includes, for example, “no tax on overtime,” which expires in just three years, doesn’t impact payroll and state income taxes, and has strict annual caps.
The bill’s full impact won’t be felt until 2027 when the most egregious Medicaid cuts happen — a timeline that Republicans crafted to shield themselves from accountability before next year’s midterms.
With the seemingly daily barrage of attacks on working people, it would be easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. But the stakes are too high, and the consequences too dire, for us to remain passive observers as decades of hard-won progress is being undone.
Organized labor, and working people generally, aren’t going down without a fight. We are witnessing a rise in worker activism across the country, and public support for unions is now at 70% — the highest in 60 years. Support has surged among every age group but is especially strong among Millennial and Gen Z workers who now represent the majority of the U.S. workforce.
As workers, our unity is our greatest strength. So, when a city like ours is targeted by Trump and his allies, attempting to sow disunity and fear among our communities and take away the rights and benefits that are rightfully ours, New York City — the biggest union town in the nation — won’t be silent.
Armstrong is president of 1199SEIU, the largest health care union in the nation.
