Yesterday, former President Donald Trump signed an order impacting over a million federal workers, limiting their rights to negotiate their working conditions. UAW President Shawn Fain expressed solidarity with these workers, particularly those represented by the AFGE union, who face restrictions due to this new order.
Fain recalled a historic event from his youth: the Reagan administration’s crackdown on the air traffic controllers’ union, PATCO, which resulted in over 11,000 firings and blacklists. “It wasn’t just about PATCO – it sent a message to employers everywhere that it was open season on the working class,” Fain remarked. He emphasized the ongoing effects of this incident on labor relations, stating, “The labor movement failed to act in that moment, and we have been paying the price ever since.”
Fain warns that the current administrative actions surpass the PATCO incident in severity, affecting over 1 million employees across at least 18 agencies. “These actions are not just an attack on unions—it’s an attack on free speech, on workers’ right to organize,” he asserted. UAW members at the National Institutes of Health are among those impacted by these changes.
The UAW president underscored the need to defend union rights, distancing the labor movement from partisan politics: “The labor movement is not about party politics. We aren’t Democrats or Republicans. We’re trade unionists.” He concluded with a warning for those challenging workers’ rights: “When you come after workers, you’re going to find us standing shoulder to shoulder, ready to fight back.”
