By David Sole, past president UAW Local 2334, Detroit
Donald Trump’s attacks on the labor unions and broader sections of poor and working people continue nonstop. Government unions are targeted for destruction while civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, disabled rights are all taking hits. Muslims and all immigrants are viciously singled out. And US military aggression spreads death and destruction around the world – Iran, Palestine, Venezuela and Cuba are the latest targets – diverting hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars away from health care, education and other vital social programs. Meanwhile the billionaire class, Trump’s pals, get huge tax breaks.
Where should labor stand at this crucial point of history as popular resistance rises around the country – most notably in the huge “No Kings Day” series of demonstrations that saw millions of people hit the streets?
The labor movement, with a few commendable exceptions, has largely stood on the sidelines – perhaps fearing backward sections of their membership or retaliation from the Trump administration that has weaponized the Department of Justice.
But the struggle can only intensify. More Trump attacks, more illegal wars, more scapegoating of some people, more anti-union assaults and, very possibly, an attack on voting rights before the November elections. The unions cannot, and should not, remain outside the arena. Rather, the organized labor movement has a duty to help lead in this class war.
On January 23, 2026, Minneapolis showed the way. When motivated and in close collaboration with community groups, Minnesota unions used their resources to pull off the first one day general strike in modern US history. Within two weeks Trump pulled thousands of ICE agents out of that city after terrorizing and murdering people for months.
An encouraging sign that things are changing is that central labor councils across the country are, for the first time, giving leadership to May Day protests which had been usually carried out by smaller, radical organizations.
Some unions, unfortunately, still are taking a very narrow view of what labor should be putting forward on this May Day. What is needed, however, is for labor to boldly take up the banner of struggle against all the many attacks, not just those on union rights to organize and bargain.
Today’s unions cannot distance themselves from the big concerns of society at large. Fighting Trump one union at a time, or even all the unions together is a losing strategy. Organized workers make up only about 10% of the workforce. And our unions don’t live in a vacuum. Our members have family, friends and neighbors who are under the gun by many of the Trump attacks.
The task for labor unions this May Day should be to loudly proclaim:
- No ICE. Stop scapegoating immigrants. There are no borders in the workers’ struggle.
- No troops in our streets; No martial law; No to fascism.
- Defend voting rights, civil rights, immigrant rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, disabled rights. An injury to one is an injury to all.
- Stop U.S. imperialist wars! The same billionaire bankers and corporate bosses are behind foreign wars and the attacks on workers here at home.
- Defend and expand social programs – food assistance, health care for all, education, environmental protection, jobs.
- Tax the rich. Defund the Pentagon.
