LABOR PLAYS IMPORTANT ROLE IN “NO KINGS” PROTESTS
A protester dressed as a founding father hold a flag that reads “No Kings In America” at a “No Kings” protest outside the Michigan Capitol in Lansing, Michigan on June 14.
(PHOTO BY JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)
For days, the news has been filled with accounts of the massive “No Kings” demonstrations around the country on Oct. 14. The turnout in some 2,000 cities and small towns all across America involving an estimated five million people, the largest in memory, was a thunderous protest against the policies of President Donald Trump.
They represented Americans of many political views but all united in opposition to Trump’s agenda of huge tax breaks for billionaires while taking crippling cuts to basic services for poor and middle class families, his attacks on the U.S. Constitution, and his attempts to set himself up as some kind of American king.
“No Kings” protest along Fifth Avenue in New York City on June 14
Although most unions didn’t officially mobilize members to protest as organized groups, union members were an important part of the demonstrations. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) was prominent in Philadelphia and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in California and the South. In New York City, the most organized groupings were the college teachers union PSC-CUNY, the Communication Workers of America and federal workers, who have been at the center of Trump’s efforts to destroy the labor movement.
Among the tens of thousands who turned out in Philadelphia were members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. “We know that when organized labor is defeated, it usually means open season for everybody else,” said one high school teacher and PFT member. “They’re not done attacking organized labor and trying to dismantle what remains of working class organizations.”
Jen Gaboury, first vice president of PSC-CUNY, branded Trump’s authoritarian overreach as “really financial abuse of workers, New Yorkers, of people who need the social safety net.”
Carl Rosen, president of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, says a new formation called Labor for Democracy brought together 15 national unions and hundreds of locals and regions to back the No Kings Day protests, recognizing “that the labor movement has a special role to play in defending democracy in our country.”
Labor for Democracy is planning to launch a political education program for rank-and-file union members. Unions are a major as part of an effort to defeat Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” whose provisions like eligibility changes to Medicaid would cut healthcare coverage to nearly 11 million people and have a devastating impact on millions of working people if the bill passes.
Jackson Potter, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union also spoke about a plan to develop a joint strategy alongside national education unions, federal unions, logistics workers and the AFL-CIO. Potter says the game plan is to mobilize workers to “defend our communities against the billionaire agenda hellbent on cutting healthcare, food for hungry children and school funding.”
