COVID pandemic exposes worker inequality, says AFL-CIO president

The coronavirus pandemic is showing how inequitable the current labor system is, and workers are right to advocate for better working conditions, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said during a Headliners Newsmaker event at the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Shuler said COVID-19 has made the public realize the lack of safe, well-paid jobs, even though millions were called “essential workers” yet faced with stagnant wages, inadequate benefits and a lack of health protections while working during the worst of the pandemic.

 

The reaction in organized labor has been intense, with strike action voted on or debated in various sectors, including healthcare, food production, mining and entertainment. At the Newsmaker event, she announced that the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents 60,000 Hollywood crews and backstage workers, would strike on Monday if they do not agree a new contract.

“Some are calling this ‘Striketober,’ Shuler said. “I call this 'exhibit' A for why we need to rebalance the scales and put workers back in the center of our economy.”

Questions are being asked about the state of the labor market, with millions of unfilled jobs and a spate of resignations making some experts wonder if people are refusing to work. But Shuler, who this summer became president of the labor federation that represents 12.5 million members across 57 unions, said the strike actions being taken nationwide show that people are no longer willing to accept substandard conditions.

“It’s as if they’re fighting for the weekend all over again and they’re ready to strike, if necessary,” she said.

Instead, she said that people feel unsafe amid the raging pandemic. Meanwhile, she said, inadequate childcare prevents them from going back to work, which also contributes to people feeling like they “don’t want to go back to a crappy job.”

Plenty of issues lie ahead for the organized labor movement, Shuler said. She cited the need to face down the growth of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence that could automate many jobs, and “not sit passively by while the future lands on us.”

Shuler, the first female leader in the history of the AFL-CIO, said the labor movement should be more intentional about promoting women and especially women of color into its leadership ranks by showing it is “dynamic, open, transparent, wanting of their leadership.”

With the Biden administration and Congress controlled by the Democratic Party, Shuler said there is a “generational opportunity” to pass a physical infrastructure bill as well as the Build Back Better Act social spending measure, both of which are being debated in Congress.

She also called on lawmakers to finish their work on the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which passed the House of Representatives and awaits a vote in the Senate, where Shuler said the filibuster should be abolished.

“This is our chance,” Shuler said. “We have a window, an historic opportunity. We cannot, and will not, let it pass us by.”