On May Day We're Calling for Robust Investments to Build Worker Power

May 1 marks International Workers Day, or May Day, which honors the contributions and struggles workers have and continue to engage in across the globe. This May Day reflects a unique moment in our country’s labor history: a strong job market has helped enable workers to fight for what they deserve, leading to a flurry of strikes and organizing campaigns and, importantly, an increase in union membership. And all of these gains were among workers of color, especially Black workers.  

From A. Phillip Randolph famously organizing Black train porters to secure guaranteed wages to Lucy Parsons helping secure the eight-hour workday and the holiday we’re celebrating today, to Chris Smalls organizing fellow Amazon workers to fight abysmal warehouse conditions, Black workers have always been at the vanguard of organizing and building worker power. The gains that all workers are seeing can be traced back to those efforts.  

Black workers have always been at the vanguard of organizing and building worker power. The gains that all workers are seeing can be traced back to those efforts.

But the boon in worker organizing hasn’t been without backlash. It has been both swift and fierce from conservative and corporate actors that seek to weaken workers’ voice and power, as well as the democratic institutions that enable them.  

Corporations like Starbucks have poured millions into union-busting campaigns and lobbied against pro-worker policies, while conservative policymakers have acted in dangerous and confounding ways to diminish worker gains. For example, in an effort to weaken worker bargaining power, multiple states, including Iowa and Arkansas, have passed legislation dismantling child labor protections. And the Supreme Court is just weeks away from a ruling likely to effectively nullify workers’ right to strike. These efforts pose harm to all workers but will fall hardest on Black and brown workers, whose gains are most recent and therefore most fragile.  

But policymakers, elected officials, community leaders—and of course workers—have an opportunity to fight back.   

In 2022, President Biden signed three historic pieces of legislation into law: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which collectively seek to tackle challenges in infrastructure, competitiveness, and climate, all while centering equity. Together, these more than $3 trillion in investments have the potential to create millions of good union jobs. But the potential for these investments to buoy worker power hinges on proper implementation.  

Previous federal investments at this scale—from New Deal-era programs to the construction of the interstate highway system—have too often left Black and brown workers behind or worse, inflicted harm on our communities.  

That’s why it’s crucial that these commitments are used to invest in and support Black and brown workers, help them get good union jobs and build worker power so ultimately these investments can help our families and communities thrive. 

Policymakers have already taken promising steps—the Department of Labor’s Good Jobs Initiative is a standout example—but there’s more to be done at the federal, state, and local levels.  

Companies benefiting from these investments must be required to pursue “high-road” strategies that reflect the value of workers and don’t just treat them as a commodity, including hiring local residents, paying livable wages, offering childcare an importantly, not thwarting workers’ attempts to organize. This is also a moment to explore other models to promote the high road, such as sectoral bargaining. 

Workers, especially Black workers who are often last hired and first fired, cannot afford to depend on a hot labor market to boost our bargaining power.

Workers, especially Black workers who are often last hired and first fired, cannot afford to depend on a hot labor market to boost our bargaining power.

As these robust federal investments are being poured into communities across the country, the U.S. has an opportunity to right past wrongs and do the important and long overdue work of finally building a labor market where workers have meaningful, durable power.