STATE THE OF UNIONS

LIZ SHULER, PRESIDENT OF THE AFL-CIO, SAT DOWN WITH FAST COMPANY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF BRENDAN VAUGHAN TO DISCUSS HOW THE LARGEST FEDERATION OF UNIONS IN THE UNITED STATES IS RESPONDING TO AN ADMINISTRATION THAT IS HOSTILE TOWARD LABOR.

- Brendan Vaughan

Liz Shuler has a tough job.
It's not just tough to do.
It's tough even to define.

AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE AFLCIO, a 70-year-old federation of 63 national and international unions representing more than 15 million workers, she is the leader of the American labor movement. But “labor” is not a monolith. She represents NEL players, government workers, Hollywood writers, hotel janitors. Shuler, who became the first woman to run the AFL-CIO when she was elected in 2021, doesn’t negotiate pay rates or mediate disputes between workers and management.

Her mandate is much broader: Grow the ranks of union-ized workers across industries, lobby policymakers to pass pro-worker guidelines and remove barriers to unionizing, make the labor movement more inclusive to all people, and stand up to powerful anti-union forces at the highest levels of business and government.

She’s been busy lately. On January 20, one of the most labour-friendly presidents in U.S. history moved out of the Oval Office and one of the most anti-labor presidents moved back in. Two months later, Trump signed an executive order (EO) that amounted to “the bombing of Pearl Harbor against the labor movement,” in the words of the labor activist and author Hamilton Nolan. Under the guise of national security, the EO (if it continues to withstand legal challenges) strips the collective bargaining rights of workers at more than 30 federal agencies. Shuler does not think Nolan was being hyperbolic.