Eric Blanc is Assistant Professor of Labor Studies at Rutgers University, an Organizer Trainer in the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, Author of Red State Revolt: The Teachers' Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics, and Director of the Worker-to-Worker Collaborative. His new book: We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big, offers a timely game plan for Organized Labor to consider in order to go on the offensive and defeat Trumpism:

Our best bet for beating back and defeating Trumpism lies in a revitalized Labor Movement.

But can Workers and Unions continue their forward momentum under the new Administration?

Trump has already unleashed deep attacks on Organized Labor, from attacking Unionized Federal Employees to kneecapping the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

And his Anti-Union moves have certainly given a green light to Corporate America to reassert its untrammeled dominance.

But as the growth of Worker-to-Worker resistance among Federal Workers is showing, vicious boss attacks can in certain circumstances be a major spur to Labor mobilization and organization.

As the Union saying goes, sometimes “the boss is the best Organizer.”

Reasons for Optimism:

On the whole, Unions are actually still well-positioned to continue their organizing momentum.

Doing so will be critical for beating back Trump’s worst attacks and isolating MAGA by demonstrating the emptiness of its economic populist rhetoric.

Here are five positive factors that should ward off despair - and that should encourage Unions to invest more, not less, into organizing:

1. The economic forces fueling Trumpism also favor Labor’s continued resurgence. After the pandemic laid bare the fundamental unfairness of our economic system, Workers responded with a burst of Union Organizing and the most significant Strike activity in decades. The same underlying economic forces - chronic economic insecurity and inequality – helped propel Trumpism to a narrow victory in the 2024 elections. But Trump’s actual policies will inevitably exacerbate economic inequality, undermining the Republican Party’s hollow Pro-Worker rhetoric. Stepping into the breach of Trump’s fake populism, Unions remain Workers’ best tool to provide a real solution to economic insecurity. And with a tight labor market projected for the coming years, employers will have less power to threaten Employees who dare to Unionize their workplaces and Workers will have more bargaining leverage against employers, increasing the chances of successful - and headline-grabbing - Strikes. 
2. Young Worker activism is not going away. As I show in my new book We Are the Union,most of the labor upsurge since 2020 has been driven forward by Gen Z and Millennial Workers radicalized by economic inequality, Bernie Sanders, and racial justice struggles. And contrary to what some have suggested, the 2024 election did not register a major shift to the right among young people, but rather a sharp drop in young Democratic turnout.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: Labor Can Go on the Offensive and Defeat Trumpism - University of California Press