Summer blockbuster: Labor unions face ‘Mission Impossible’

It is a political drama worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster.

You have celebrities without make-up, full-on “greed is good” corporate captains, and a bit of fear of the unknown: a new technology threatening to destroy a way of life.

But this is not a movie; it is a real-life thriller.

America’s unions are fighting their most important battle in a generation.

Blue-collar workers have long known the job-killing power of automation. Now, white-collar workers, solidly middle-class, have their turn in the Mad Max-style “Thunderdome” of economic doom, facing technology that can make everyone from bureaucrats to screenwriters obsolete.

There have been warnings. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with businessman Andrew Yang, made it central to their 2016 presidential campaigns.

Back then, they spoke about the loss of manufacturing jobs, as hedge funds sent U.S. jobs overseas to allow corporations to pump up profits by paying low wages.

Now add in office workers, teachers and screenwriters, as well as actors.

The advanced technology most famously branded as “Chat Box AI” threatens to drive income inequality to new highs, threatening economic stability and even political stability.

Unions are at the front this fight, even as they have been diminished in recent years.

In recent years, most news reports about organized labor focus on the decline in union membership. Only about 7 percent of private-sector workers — and only 12 percent of all U.S. workers — now belong to unions. In the 1950s, 33 percent of workers were union members.

Driven by the political spending of the super-rich, American television, radio and print media paint unions as obstacles to enterprise and innovation. This is their reward for standing up for workers’ wages and rights in the face of corporate greed.

It is no accident that unions have been bad-mouthed so vigorously, even as populist politics have taken hold among white working-class voters, fueling right-wing support of billionaire former President Donald Trump.

The United Autoworkers union (UAW) is negotiating with “Big Three” U.S. Auto manufacturers, Stellantis, Ford and General Motors. The head of the UAW, Shawn Fain said earlier this month that 150,000 of the UAW’s 400,000 members are prepared to strike when their current contract expires in September.

Last week, the Teamsters union successfully leveraged a strike to negotiate a new contract with UPS, the parcel delivery giant.

Also last week, union leaders reached a deal with the Democratic National Committee to prevent a boycott of the party’s upcoming convention in Chicago by agreeing to use only union labor. 

Union leaders protested the Democratic Party’s consideration of Atlanta as the site of next year’s Democratic National Convention because of the state’s anti-union bent.

Probably the most memorable congressional hearing of 2023 thus far was when Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders took on Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.

“Starbucks has waged the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country,” said Sanders. “What is outrageous to me is not only Starbucks’ anti-union activities and their willingness to break the law… their calculated and intentional efforts to stall, stall and stall.”

Sanders joined President Joe Biden in the White House earlier this month to meet with labor leaders representing Starbucks workers and Minor League Baseball players.

After the meeting, Biden tweeted, “The presence of a union means there is democracy. And organizing or joining a union — that’s democracy in action.”

Biden is getting support from labor. “President Joe Biden is the most pro-union, pro-worker president of our lifetimes — hands down, no contest,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said, announcing the union’s endorsement of Biden’s re-election in April.

But the big fight is not in D.C. It comes from Hollywood.

“This is a moment of history,” said Fran Drescher, president of the 160,00-member Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. “That is a moment of truth. If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble. We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines and big business, who cares more about Wall Street than you and your family…Most Americans don’t have more than $500 in an emergency.”

Drescher’s impassioned speech went viral on social media. 

It wasn’t that long ago that the actor who held Drescher’s job — Ronald Reagan — successfully led a strike over wages, benefits and emergent new technology. 

Reagan went on to be elected governor of California and later president of the United States. In a plot twist for the ages, the major domestic policy showdown of Reagan’s first term was his decision to fire 12,000 unionized air traffic controllers who had gone on strike.

So get out the popcorn and pay close attention.

It will be a political summer blockbuster. It is no exaggeration to say that this will determine whether the credits roll and fade to black on labor unions as a political force in America.

Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.