Unions Are America's Future. The Numbers Say So | Opinion
A few weeks ago, I stood on the streets of New York City with working actors, performers and writers from SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America who have been on strike for months now: risking their livelihoods to win a fair contract for themselves and all who come after. We chanted. We walked the picket line. But what inspired me most was when working people all around us—overwhelmingly young workers, in their 20s and 30s—saw what was happening and joined in: UPS drivers who laid on their horns to show support. Construction workers who clapped as they passed by. Food delivery workers who stopped for a minute to cheer us on.
Some people don't understand that. They ask: What could a UPS driver, a retail worker, an auto worker possibly have in common with Hollywood writers and actors? The answer is the story of the labor movement in America at this moment—people all over this country who have realized, no matter their job or industry, how much they have in common with their fellow workers. They are fed up with an economy that has been rigged against them. They are rebelling against a broken status quo. And they are turning to unions and the labor movement as their answer because they understand that a union is the vehicle for them to build and hold power to change their lives.