Peterson: Our movement won’t back down from challenges ahead in 2025

St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is pictured speaking at the 2022 MN AFL-CIO Convention.

While our Labor 2024 political program saw some positive outcomes locally, there’s no way to sugarcoat the Nov. 5 election results nationwide. A second Trump presidency represents a threat to every worker with a union contract, every worker who depends on our elected leaders to support good jobs, workplace safety, prevailing wages and the right to bargain collectively. President-elect Trump courted working people on the campaign trail while cozying up to CEOs and billionaires like Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. Together, they laughed at the prospect of firing workers who went on strike for better treatment on the job. Now Musk is an appointee to Trump’s White House team, and he’s pledging to “send shockwaves” through the federal workforce – a terrifying notion to anyone working in government service.

As union members, we know the meaning of solidarity, that an injury to one is an injury to all. We’ve seen solidarity in action a lot lately, as working Americans have joined together to fight for fairness – and won. We’ve seen autoworkers, delivery drivers, retail clerks and manufacturing workers across the country demand fair wages from their corporate bosses. We’ve seen local educators, health care workers and public employees fight for investments in better staffing for the services they provide. Our movement will need to tap into that well of solidarity now, with Trump and Republican majorities in Congress ready to implement Project 2025, more than ever. Our movement has shown the power to take on the biggest, richest bosses on the planet, and we will need to do the same when powerful, extremist politicians come after members of our union family. We cannot be divided, and we must fight like hell.

Dividing people is, of course, what Trump and his allies want to do. It’s what they tried to do during his first term in office. And the lessons they took from that first administration are what informed Project 2025, the 900-page playbook for Trump’s return to the White House. Trump attempted to distance himself from the document during his campaign, but many of his cabinet nominees have strong ties to Project 2025, which would strip overtime pay, weaken health and safety standards, give bosses new powers to wiggle out of their union contracts and make collective bargaining illegal in the public sector. These are the fights coming in the months ahead, and we will need all the support and solidarity we can get.

Fortunately, our movement has powerful supporters in Washington, D.C., including labor-endorsed lawmakers who were re-elected Nov. 5. They include Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Reps. Angie Craig and Betty McCollum. Minnesota’s Labor 2024 political program also helped keep Minnesota “blue” in the Electoral College count, with union volunteers attempting over 200,000 contacts with fellow union members by phone or at the doorstep. Nationally, union members favored Vice President Kamala Harris by nearly 17%.

But it wasn’t enough. Polling shows Trump and Republican congressional candidates won over working-class voters, including many union members. That may have contributed to Trump’s decision to nominate Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon, a rare pro-labor Republican, to serve as Labor Secretary. She co-sponsored the Protecting The Right To Organize (PRO) Act and a bill to ensure public-sector bargaining rights. But as AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in her response to the nomination, Trump is the president-elect, and his record is clear. “You can stand with working people, or you can stand with Project 2025,” she said, “but you can’t stand with both.”

On behalf of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, I want to thank every volunteer who participated in our Labor 2024 political program. Thank you for taking the time to talk with coworkers at the jobsite, and with members of our union family on our phones and at our homes. There will, undoubtedly, be much work that we need to do to protect our freedoms in the coming months. As we reflect on the possibilities that the new year brings, I hope we will consider the many ways our lives are better in a union, and that we will re-commit to solidarity in action.

– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, with over 100 affiliated unions in Chisago, Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties.