Advoken's Blog

As the Trump Administration seeks to destroy DEI programs in our workplaces, our schools, our governments and everywhere, it’s revealing to note that labor unions may be one of our nation’s most effective institutions that can defy these backward actions and continue the campaign to end prejudice against various cultures.

Trump has committed his Administration to ban all efforts that would bring diversity, equality and inclusion (i.e. DEI) in everyday activities of Americans.  Funding has been cut or eliminated for universities, nonprofits and others that continue to have DEI programs.

The labor movement is in a position to fight against these actions, since the very essence of unionism is solidarity.  No union has ever been successful unless it recognizes every worker as equal.  It cannot strike effectively if part of the workforce refuses to join the picket line; it cannot win grievances or take other actions if large numbers of the membership are not in support of such actions.

Mother Jones, the iconic labor leader of the early 20^th Century, said it well: “My friends, it is solidarity of labor we want. We do not want to find fault with each other, but to solidify our forces and say to each other: We must be together; our masters are joined together, and we must do the same thing.”

It’s no mystery why the traditional greeting of workers has been, “Hi brother,” or “Hi, sister.”  When we’re at work, we truly are brothers and sisters.  Regardless of our backgrounds, our ethnic makeup, our gender, our age, whether we are Packer fans or Viking fans, when we’re on the job, we are “one,” or we should be.

Historically, until the early 20^th Century, workers segregated themselves by their crafts, with the skilled workers usually the first to organize, that is, all electricians in a union, all machinists in another union, all welders in still another.  In too many cases, it meant that a few workers had decent wages and benefits, while leaving others behind.  It wasn’t until the 1930s that workers began to realize that they had more strength if ALL workers in a plant organized into ONE union that they could win better pay, benefits and working conditions.

The Congress of Industrial Organizations (or CIO) was created in 1937 to form industry-wide unions, overcoming the craft-based unionism that was common in the American Federation of Labor that characterized the labor movement since the 1890s. 

Race and gender also caused separation of workers, as more and more women, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans entered the workforce.  Cultural differences often made it difficult for workers to recognize that all workers were members of the same “class,” the working class.

President Trump and his gaggle of pro-business cronies have been seeking to reinvigorate the prejudices that have long tainted the American soul.  From Trump’s ride down the escalator in announcing his first campaign for President in 2015 when he denounced immigrants (code word for Hispanics) as “rapists and murderers,” the message has been clear: only Caucasians are “good Americans.”

Also relegated to second-class citizenry by the Trump crowd have been women along with our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer brothers and sisters. 

The American trade union movement for the last 60 years has been dedicated to promoting and protecting the civil and workplace rights of all workers. It was organized labor’s insistence that the ground-breaking Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed and included a section guaranteeing fair employment practices in the workplace.  According to Archie Robinson’s 1981 biography, “George Meany and His Times,” it was Meany (then president of the AFL-CIO) who pressured Congressional leaders to include the workplace measure.

The Economic Policy Institute, a research group, concluded in a recent study, “. . . In fact, outside of the Civil Rights Movement itself, it is safe to say that organized labor—despite its imperfections—has been the most equalizing institution in American society in narrowing racial gaps in the labor market.”

In 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Black workers continued to have a higher union membership rate in 2024 (11.8 percent) than White workers (9.6 percent), Asian workers (8.5 percent), and Hispanic workers (8.5 percent).

Some 40 years ago, as a staff member of the former Allied Industrial Workers union (now part of the Steelworkers), I witnessed several incidents of how unions worked to overcome racism or sexism in the ranks to build strength.  In a 2,000-plus member local in Indiana, a black skilled worker whose weekend hobby was performing in drag clubs was elected its president.  Ironically, the local for long had been split along skilled vs. unskilled workers, a rift that was largely cured by an education program run by the International to build solidarity by showing its leadership and members the value of overcoming cultural, racial and gender differences.

If I learned anything in my long career in the union, it didn’t matter the race, gender, sexual orientation or age of a union member, it only mattered how dedicated she or he was to serving all workers within the local.  (By Ken Germanson, president emeritus of the Wisconsin Labor History Society)