AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler says union ready to stand up for struggling Americans: ‘Which side are you on?’
Donald Trump has staged a year of “unrelenting attacks on working people,” according to the head of the largest federation of the labor unions in the US. Now they’re preparing to fight back.
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said it was gearing up to challenge the US president’s “Billionaire First” agenda in 2026 – and drive candidates in key elections to stand up for “struggling” Americans.
In an interview with the Guardian, she described how the federation has pushed to restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers, and filed lawsuits against the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken unions and worker protections. “People were pissed,” said Shuler.
Labor unions in the US are largely tiny little mafias who constantly fill their members with dread to keep themselves relevant and in control. Especially in nursing. I’ve seen union leaders literally screaming at the top of their lungs to protect a nurse, despite evidence, who purposefully withheld insulin from a patient they didn’t like. (Yes, they eventually got caught)
On the other hand to be fair the current US members, union leaders of old fucked up when they agreed to make it illegal to organize a general strike. They all should have shut the country down when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. Its been a death spiral ever since.
My mom recently retired from teaching and she often talked about this sort of thing in teachers unions. Protecting teachers who obviously didn’t give a shit about actually educating students.