Our dignity as working people is worth fighting for

A time for solidarity and a call for action

by APRIL SIMS
February 5, 2025

The last time I felt this overwhelmed by chaos and uncertainty was 5 years ago. It was the beginning of the COVID pandemic and Washington State was at the epicenter. There was a lot we didn’t know.

What were the symptoms? How was it spread? Was it safe to go to work and school?  Would healthcare workers have what they needed to take care of the sick? Would our healthcare system fail under the stress?

I remember lying awake at night feeling like we were under attack from an unknown virus and thinking about what the WSLC could do to keep workers, families, and communities safe and whole.

Together, we didn’t wait for the federal administration; we chose to take action to make sure our union siblings were safe.

In many ways, this is a similar moment. It’s the beginning of a new federal administration and workers’ rights are at the epicenter. It’s planned chaos, intended to overwhelm and scare us, but many of the feelings, from five years ago, are the same. There’s a lot we don’t know.

If your group chat is like my group chat there are constant questions, like what new Executive Order will be signed today? What will happen to immigrant workers and families who are being targeted at work, schools, hospitals, and churches? What happens to societal safety nets if federal workers are pushed out? How will my work, our children’s school, and community investments be impacted by federal cuts?

But if you’re like me – after you unplug from the group chats, the news, and social media – you’re lying awake at night feeling like we’re under attack. You’re not alone.

We are experiencing a rogue administration testing to see where there is no resistance to their plans to dismantle rights, as they attack the dignity of working people and enrich the pockets of their billionaire bros.

I lie awake at night and remember the early lessons of the COVID pandemic; if the most impacted workers fall, we all go down with them. In 2020, if care workers had fallen, the healthcare apparatus would have collapsed. In the same vein now, if we fail to defend the workers who need protection most, our entire system is in peril.

Immigrant workers. Black workers. Indigenous workers. Other workers of color need us. Trans workers. Public workers. Young workers, who are trying to preserve and form their unions, need us. In this moment working families need our labor movement to stand up and fight.

The labor movement of the 19th century, once racially segregated and exclusionary, has evolved into today’s labor movement—a powerful force for racial and economic justice, fighting for the rights, dignity, and solidarity of all workers. This is our moment to stand united in working class solidarity against a federal administration beholden to the billionaire class.

United we are powerful and unafraid. The chaotic cruelty we’ve seen in this administration is chilling. They want us to cower. Sowing fear is their strategy.

It’s a lot easier to bulldoze people into submission when they’re overwhelmed, afraid, and on the defense. The chaos coming down from the Whitehouse is designed to knock us off our feet. They are trying to suppress and divide us, because they know solidarity is our strength.

Still, an agenda by and for billionaires at the expense of working people is a real threat. This administration is incapacitating agencies, violating precedent to fire members of the National Labor Relations Board, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is a clear message; this administration will use every tool at its disposal to make it easier to exploit workers. It’s terrifying to confront.

But fear is not just an emotion; it’s a call to action—a reminder that something important is at stake.

Recall the early days of COVID; amid the fear and uncertainty, building and construction trades workers donated PPE for frontline healthcare workers and first responders, knowing that their direct exposure made them the most immediately vulnerable, recognizing that our lives depended on their wellbeing. There were a lot of unknowns, but we took action to save lives with the information we had.

That action is needed again. The life of our labor movement is dependent on the wellbeing of all working people.

For those of us with institutional power, we have a responsibility to lean into the fight, to step up to defend our communities. We don’t have to have all the answers or know the right play; we don’t have to be perfect, we just have to show up.

If you’ve got your hand on power, it’s time to pull the lever. Politicians, act boldly and use the might of your offices to defend working people. Union leaders, collaborate together to protect immigrant workers, our public institutions, and the right to organize. Union members, lean into your unions, find and build community, tap into people power. We will not let ourselves be disempowered; all of us have stake in this fight.

Here’s actions we can take:

• Learn what to do if ICE shows up at your workplace. If you’re a citizen, especially if you are white and born in the US, you can take action to defend and support your immigrant coworkers. Raiding schools and hospitals is cruel; we don’t have to accept it. Join a rapid response training from the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) tonight at 6pm to learn how you can support immigrant communities in case of a raid.
• Build community in constituency groups. AFL-CIO constituency groups like APALA, APRI, CBTU, CLUW, LCLAA, and Pride at Work. Foster community among working people. Open to all, these organizations exist to uplift impacted workers and build sustaining community.
• Find ways to stay informed without getting overwhelmed. We can’t check out; and we can’t live in a state of fight-flight-freeze-appease indefinitely. Make sure you’re subscribed to the Stand and all the WSLC socials

Our labor movement has been here before and we have persevered. Workers have faced down tyrants, won rights that seemed impossible, organized even when no laws granted us the right, and refused to give up our power even when attacked.

Together we are more than just our individual selves, we are the mighty-mighty union and it makes us strong!

Since our founding in the 19th century, it’s never been easy to organize. But generations of worker struggle will not die out under this administration, not on our watch.

In this moment we can choose how we respond. And I urge us all to choose to fight back. Not as a reflex, to fight for fighting’s sake, but because our families, our communities, our rights and basic values, are worth fighting for.

I call on us to choose working class solidarity. Our dignity as working people is worth fighting for.

April Sims is President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.