The Ongoing Fight for Bread and Roses

Last Monday, I started a new job as the political director for IBEW 569, a local electrical workers' union based here in San Diego. In talking to friends about what I’m doing–while learning, fast, in real time, how to do the job myself–it occurred to me that there’s actually quite a knowledge gap in society today regarding an understanding of what unions are and what they’re supposed to do. So let’s get into it.

A union is, at its core, a group of workers who agree to negotiate together instead of alone. One worker asking a boss for a raise has almost no leverage. A thousand workers asking together hits different. That leverage of teamwork, that collective bargaining, is how the overtime pay, workplace safety standards, and employer-sponsored health insurance all came to exist in this country. None of it was handed down out of corporate goodwill. Fair wages (bread) and dignity (roses) were won, often at real cost. In 1890, the average workweek for manufacturing employees and building tradesmen was around 100 hours or more. Workers in Chicago who rallied for an eight-hour workday faced police violence, but we have that and weekends now because people were willing to lose their jobs, and sometimes their lives, to organize for it.

In short, organized labor is the best check and balance we have on capitalism. Capitalism is very good at rewarding capital. Unions are the mechanism that makes it answer to workers too.

Unfortunately, membership is down. In 1983, one in five American workers belonged to a union. Today, it's one in ten. It isn’t because unions are unpopular. Gallup reported in September 2026 that 71% of Americans approve of labor unions and a record-high 47% of folks want unions to have more influence. So union membership has roughly halved while public approval of unions is historically high. If people like the idea of unions so much, why aren't more people in them? Well, it’s an uphill battle when those in power are so aggressively union-busting.

President Trump may be the biggest union-buster this country has ever seen. Immediately after taking office again, he fired National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Gwynne Wilcox, explaining that Wilcox had “unduly disfavored” employers. Then, he issued executive orders to strip collective bargaining rights from more than a million federal workers. Meanwhile, at places like Starbucks, baristas have been organizing for years against a company notorious for labor law violations who continue to stonewall them.

But union busting isn’t just bad for workers–it’s bad for communities. Political scientists like Robert Putnam have warned that when people stop showing up to associations that bring people together–like bowling leagues, PTAs, and, of course, unions–civic power diminishes. Unions are good for democracy. And labor-friendly policies are investments that pay the whole neighborhood back.

I live in San Diego, which was not always a union town. In 2012, it became the largest city in the country to ban project labor agreements. Ten years later, voters tossed that ban out, and this week, as thousands of delegates from across North America gather here for our union's international convention, they witness a city whose relationship with labor has transformed. In ten short years, 569 has just about doubled its working hours from around 3.3 million hours a year to 6 million. Since 1997, the number of apprentices has tripled. That’s thanks to people power.

Indeed, San Diego now has a project labor agreement covering an estimated $63 billion in construction work with the building trades. That means steady, well-paid work with benefits for working-class San Diegans, as well as projects built right. Wages have an economic multiplier effect; disposable income generally changes hands a handful of times before leaving the local economy. Agreements like these mean the whole region wins, not just the workers on the job site.

One of my predecessors told me that when she was hired, she was given one instruction: go get more work for our members. That's our attitude, because work is how people pay their mortgages, raise their families, and build lives in the communities they call home. Meanwhile, Congress isn’t even working–Mike Johnson just sent everyone home for a recess that will stretch a month, on a year when the House has logged some of the fewest working days in recent memory.

While public trust in government is so incredibly low, I hear from a lot of people that they think voting doesn’t matter. It’s hard to blame anyone with that idea, as politicians repeatedly make promises and fail to live up to them. But if you're struggling to trust your government right now, try putting some of that trust in unions instead.

Labor unions put out voting guides, and I'm inclined to trust the judgment of an organization whose mission is to serve a membership of working people. Progress can be slow, but voting for ballot measures and people vetted by labor unions can help speed it along. Wherever you live, look up your local unions. Which candidates have they endorsed? Which ballot measures? This November, in Oceanside, California, for example, voters have an opportunity to revoke the city’s ban on project labor agreements. Similar fights may be happening in your town, too. Your vote can make an immediate difference.

I am proud to stand alongside my working brothers and sisters. This fight can only be won together. Join us.

In solidarity.

Julie Roland was a Naval Officer for ten years, deploying to both the South China Sea and the Persian Gulf as a helicopter pilot before separating in June 2025 as a Lieutenant Commander. She has a law degree from the University of San Diego, a Master of Laws from Columbia University, and is a member of the Truman National Security Project.