This past year has shown that the current administration in Washington DC is doing anything it can to put corporate profits and the power of a small group of billionaires ahead of any interests of the working class. We are now at a turning point in our country’s history — whether we will have some opportunity for working people to express their will through democratic means or whether the corporate oligarchy, knowing that their agenda is deeply unpopular with the great majority of the American people, will instead seize complete control by suppressing fair elections and public dissent. History is clear that we will not win this fight without the kind of militant struggle that UE was founded on.

Fortunately, we have new allies and formations to help us do exactly that. Labor for Democracy is a network of national and local labor unions which UE helped initiate last year in order to fight for our rights to organize, bargain and protest. May Day Strong grew out of the efforts to build the largest number of May Day protests in 2025 in U.S. history, continued with a huge number of actions on Labor Day, and has supported other mass protests against the corporate agenda throughout the past year. It is a coalition of union and community-based organizations that stands firmly in support of working-class demands.

Labor for Democracy has developed a 90-minute training called “Working Class Solidarity vs. Billionaires” that helps union members understand how the economic problems workers face are tied to the corporate agenda overtaking our democracy, the key role that unions must play in turning this around, and steps that union members can take to put things on a better track. This workshop is available for online participation but also for local leaders to be trained on how to present it in-person to other members and even workers outside our union.

May Day Strong is building on the education program provided by Labor for Democracy by setting up dozens of strike and solidarity schools across the country, full-day in-person programs where union members and working class community activists come together to develop plans for large and militant protest actions that create the type of economic disruption needed to bring about the change we need in the country.

UE locals and members are encouraged to use this form to find strike and solidarity schools in their area, participate in or learn how to run trainings about how the economic problems workers face are tied to the corporate agenda overtaking our democracy, or just sign up to be informed of opportunities to take action. Staff Coordinator Valentina Luketa is coordinating this work; she can be reached at valentina.luketa@ueunion.org or (219) 323-9429.