Labor Day Highlights How Unions Became the Bosses They Once Fought Against

Labor Day should be a celebration of the American worker — a day to honor the contributions of hardworking men and women across the country. Instead, it has increasingly become a platform for union officials to push their agendas, often at the expense of the very workers they claim to represent. The harsh truth is that modern unions have morphed into the very type of power structure they once stood against, using government-granted powers to force workers into their ranks and strip them of their freedoms.

• Unions and Coercion: In 24 states without right-to-work laws, unions have the legal authority to compel workers to join and pay dues under threat of being fired. Even in states where union membership is technically voluntary, workers are still forced to accept union representation and the contracts imposed on them, regardless of whether they want it or if it actually benefits them.

• The “Pro Act” and Forced Unionization: The so-called “Pro Act,” a top legislative priority for Big Labor, aims to eliminate right-to-work laws across 26 states, stripping workers of their choice to opt out of union membership. Despite polls showing that a vast majority of Americans, including union members, support the right to choose whether to join a union, union bosses are pushing hard to expand their coercive powers.

• Biden-Harris NLRB’s Anti-Worker Policies: The Biden-Harris administration has further empowered union officials through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). New rules allow unions to block workers from voting to decertify their union representation, using unproven allegations as a pretext. These “blocking charges” can trap workers in unions they overwhelmingly oppose, with no recourse to change their situation.

This Labor Day, it's important to remember that unions weren’t always this way. Historically, labor leaders like AFL-CIO founder Samuel Gompers championed voluntarism, insisting that true worker empowerment comes from choice, not compulsion. Gompers understood that any gains achieved through force were fleeting and undermined the very principles of liberty that unions were supposed to uphold.

Today, however, unions have strayed far from these ideals. Instead of convincing workers to join and pay dues out of their own free will, union bosses increasingly rely on government-backed coercion to maintain their power. This shift betrays the fundamental freedoms that unions once stood for and turns them into just another layer of bureaucracy workers must navigate.

So this Labor Day, don’t buy into the union rhetoric that claims workers must be denied the freedom to choose. Remember, it’s a day for honoring the labor force, not for celebrating the unions that have become the very bosses they once fought against.

Share this article or subscribe to our newsletter for more updates.