LIVERPOOL, England – AFSCME President Lee Saunders warned the members of our sister union in the United Kingdom that Trump-style attacks on democracy, workers’ and civil rights could reach their shores.
In a stirring speech at the UNISON national delegate conference this week, Saunders also reminded members that unions do have the power to fight back.
Saunders outlined the attacks on working people, public services and millions of vulnerable people in the United States by the White House and its allies. And he said unions and pro-worker allies didn’t do enough to educate and mobilize people to defeat anti-worker politicians in the last election.
“Let this be a cautionary tale to all of you,” Saunders said. “If it’s happening in the United States … it will happen here as well.”
“Very much like the Reform Party in the UK, the so-called MAGA movement in the U.S. wins by serving working people a toxic cocktail of misinformation. Every single day. They talk about economic populism, anti-immigrant vitriol, and it is, make no mistake, a potentially strong strategy, that could work if we don’t get our acts together,” Saunders said.
To a wave of cheers and applause from the UNISON delegates, he asserted that the U.S. labor movement, and its friends and allies in communities across the country, are coming together to fight.
Saunders ended by urging UK activists to learn from AFSCME’s experiences.
“I challenge you to be fearless. I challenge you to call out lies and disinformation. I challenge you to speak plainly, boldly and unapologetically about who you are and what you stand for,” he said. “You’ve got to do that every single day. I challenge you to make the case that public service workers’ professionalism and commitment to the rule of law is absolutely vital to democracy itself.”
UNISON is similar to AFSCME. UNISON’s more than 1.3 million members work for public and private employers and provide a range of public services across the UK.
UNISON described Saunders’ address as one of the most powerful speeches its delegates have heard in recent years. To read UNISON’s full report on Saunders speech, go here.