The rights of workers have come to the forefront as Labor Day weekend approaches. With this in mind, the new president of the AFL-CIO has said that the biggest enemy of working people today is “corporations who don’t respect workers rights.”
Liz Shuler, who succeeded Rich Trumka as head of the labor colossus following his death last month, made this declaration at a Washington press breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor last week.
Recalling how Trumka branded former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker as the “public enemy number one” of labor in 2014, after he ended collective bargaining for public employees, Newsmax asked Shuler who she considered the “public enemy number one” of labor today.
“I think it is corporations who don’t respect workers’ rights,” she replied, adding that while “there are many corporations out there that value their workers with respect and allow a voice on the job,” there are also “corporations who are blatantly anti-union, who fight their workers’ tooth and nail.”
“We see this economy as broken and we want to see labor law reform, of course,” she said. “But there is a lot that corporations can be doing to invest in their workforce. We can actually be great partners—or we can be tremendous adversaries.”
Shuler pointed to the “strike going on with Nabisco.” In four or five cities, workers are on the picket line as we speak. The company, which has seen a surge in snack purchasing over the pandemic, has been incredibly profitable and yet workers who make all these snacks and who made the company profitable are facing take-backs in their contracts.
“So they’re saying ‘there’s only so much we can stand. We want affordable health care, decent wages, and we just want to be treated with respect.’ So you look at a company like that and wonder why do things have to be so divided? You were making record profits during this pandemic. Why not share your success with the people who actually got you through this pandemic?”
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