From AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler's State of the Unions Speech on Labor Day

In her State of the Unions address, Shuler pointed to the single greatest barrier to that desire to be union transforming into actual membership.

“The labor laws in our country are rigged against workers trying to form a union, so it’s harder to organize…

"It’s harder to build worker power when the people in charge are working every day to undermine the movement that gives working people a voice. That’s why these midterm elections matter. If we don’t right the ship in November, it gets that much harder to build an economy that works for all of us.

“The 50 biggest individual political donors have already spent more than $1.6 billion on the 2026 election cycle. Elon Musk—one guy—is ready to spend as much as $200 million the next few months alone. We can’t outspend them. We can’t compete with the billionaire TV ads. But we don’t have to. Our answer is people talking to people. It’s the trust, the relationships that union workers have all over America. We are the antidote to billionaire money.”