‘This Labor Day is different’: Union leaders call for solidarity

Collectively representing more than 200,000 union members across the state, Arizona union leaders emphasized that it’s more important than ever before to join a movement and stand together against the Trump administration. 

With attacks on working Americans on the rise, and a presidential administration intent on only serving the top 1% and large corporations, the leaders of Arizona’s largest labor unions stood together at a news conference Friday to call for solidarity.  

This Labor Day is more than just a holiday, it’s about defending democracy and protecting every worker’s freedom, fairness and security, said Fred Yamashita, secretary-treasurer and executive director of Arizona AFL-CIO, a union representing more than 185,000 members.

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“If we stay silent, politicians backed by billionaires and big corporations will divide us. They want us pointing fingers at each other so we don’t notice what they’re doing, driving down our wages, taking away our health care and stripping away our rights on the job,” Yamashita added. 

Since taking office in January, President Trump has made dangerous cuts to vital social safety net services, moved to remove federal funding from public schools, threatened worker health and safety protections, and signed one of the biggest spending cuts on healthcare. 

READ MORE: You’re paying taxes today—but are billionaires and big corporations dodging theirs?

Workers need to stand together to protect the services that families rely on, said Beatriz Topete, Arizona State Director of UNITE HERE Local 11, a union representing over 33,000 airport, stadium and food service workers across California and Arizona. 

“The big, ugly bill that just came out of Congress is nothing but the biggest transfer of wealth away from working people… it will hit the very industries and services that keep our communities alive.”

On Labor Days past, there have been celebrations to recognize the contributions of working people, but this year is different. Instead, it’s a fight for rights, said Frank Piccioli, president of AFSCME Local 2960, representing 3,000 members across the city of Phoenix, from 911 dispatchers to building inspectors, to librarians and social workers.

“We work around the clock every single day, and all we ask in return is dignity and respect from the employer and the ability to reliably provide for our families,” Piccioli said. 

Cities rely on federal funding to provide the essential services that people depend on, and the jobs that union members count on, but when funding is reduced, services are reduced, hours are cut, and working Arizonans end up paying the price, Piccioli added. 

“Their [elected officials] support for reckless budget cuts has put access to education, affordable health care, health and safety regulations and thousands of good paying jobs at risk…[while] lining the pockets of billionaires and corporations through tax breaks,” Piccioli said. “They’ve sold us to the ultra wealthy, and we’re not going to take it lying down.” 

The Trump administration is using immigrant workers to create fear, broker mistrust, and sow division amongst the working class, said Michael Vazquez, executive director of the Arizona Building Trades Council. 

The federal government has launched extensive immigration enforcement activities, such as workplace raids, and targeting sensitive locations like schools, churches, and hospitals, while abandoning due process and detaining and deporting American citizens.

“Instead of honoring the hard work of immigrant workers…our administration, along with numerous politicians and corporations are targeting them,” Vazquez said. 

Attacks on working Americans are coming from every aspect of the federal government’s actions, said Jim McLaughlin, president of UFCW 99 Arizona’s largest private sector union, representing 25,000 essential workers across the state, and president of Arizona AFL-CIO.

Every form of spending cuts, from cutting SNAP benefits to defunding rural hospitals, affects the workers UFCW 99 and AFL-CIO represents, from impacting the hours employees have access to, to the livelihoods of the hospitals that employ them, McLaughlin said.   

Public schools and their employees are also at risk as politicians continue to allocate funding towards a private school voucher system, instead of public schools, said Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association (AEA), the state’s largest teacher’s union, and an eighth grade teacher in the Isaac School District.

In Arizona, Republican legislators have continued to reroute funding from public schools, to subsidize Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) private school vouchers for families regardless of their income.

READ MORE: Federal voucher plan in Trump megabill is big win for school choice, but critics see threat to public education

“We’ve watched a small group of people that have rigged the economy to benefit themselves at our expense,” Garcia said. “Our wages stay stagnant, our costs rise, and they continue to grow richer.” 

This year, Labor Day feels different, Kelley Fisher, a 27-year AEA union member, and elementary school teacher in the Deer Valley Unified School District, told The Copper Courier. 

“Solidarity is the key to all of this right now, we need to make sure that we are all on the same page, all with the same message, representing ourselves, and for me as an educator, representing the families that come to my school,” Fisher said.