The same workers who were once the backbone of the party now feel betrayed.
If unions hope to recover, they will need to refocus on advocating for the rights and interests of workers.
A fter the 2024 election, one thing is clear: Union leaders went too far, and it has come at a steep cost to the Democratic Party. For years, unions have been a pillar of the Democratic base, but their political influence is now facing a reckoning — one that is tied directly to their failure to represent the interests of the very workers they claim to serve.
Union leaders routinely assume their members will fall in line, election after election, dutifully casting their ballots for Democratic candidates as directed. But this year’s results proved that assumption to be devastatingly wrong. Despite overwhelming financial and public support for Kamala Harris from union leaders, exit polls revealed that union members themselves were divided, with nearly half voting for Donald Trump. The reality is that unions have lost touch with their own members, and their blind loyalty to political power — at the expense of their workers — has become a liability for both labor and the Democratic Party.
This should be a wake-up call for both unions and the Democratic Party: Workers are no longer willing to blindly support the political agenda of union bosses. They are becoming increasingly disillusioned with unions’ almost singular focus on left-leaning politics and their failure to address the real, day-to-day concerns — concerns which are largely non-political.
The trust between union leadership and their members has steadily eroded; it did not happen overnight. While unions once stood as the defenders of workers’ rights, many have shifted their focus to consolidating political power and advancing agendas that cater to their own interests. Take, for example, the teachers’ unions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some, like the American Federation of Teachers, fought tooth and nail to keep schools closed, even as research emerged showing the devastating impact of prolonged school closures on students’ education and mental health. Good teachers understood the need to return to the classroom, but their union did not care.
The push to keep schools shut down was not driven by the needs of students or teachers, but by unions pursuing a political agenda and desiring to maintain control over educational and financial resources. Parents, students, and teachers alike began to see through the dubious rhetoric, causing a large crack in unions’ facade. Unions, it seemed, cared more about maintaining political power and securing benefits for their leaders than about the well-being of the workers they purported to represent.
But the erosion of solidarity did not stop there. Unions’ increasing alignment with extreme political causes, particularly on social issues, alienated even more workers. One of the most glaring examples came in the form of union support for movements that fostered antisemitism on college campuses. As tensions surrounding Israel reached new heights, unions — especially those with strong ties to left-wing causes — failed to take a clear and public stand against antisemitism. In fact, some firmly supported the hostile “pro-Palestine” demonstrators.
This further alienated a growing segment of voters — especially among Jewish communities, moderate Democrats, and many working-class union members who do not hold radical anti-Israel positions. It became abundantly clear that unions were more concerned with political posturing and advancing a divisive agenda than advocating for the interests of workers.
The failure of unions to address the concerns of their members — coupled with their focus on contentious social issues — has led to a widening gap between union leadership and the working-class base they once represented.
For the Democratic Party, this fracture is particularly risky. The same workers who were once the backbone of the party now feel betrayed. The result? A shift toward populism and a growing resentment of traditional political structures, which generated support for Republican candidates who have positioned themselves as champions of the working class.
If unions hope to recover from this misstep, they will need to return to their stated core mission of advocating for the rights and interests of workers. That requires putting the needs of their members first — whether it is fighting for better wages or improved working conditions, or addressing the actual challenges facing working people today. Instead of bending to the whims of political elites and extremists, unions must return to their roots as organizations that put the needs of rank-and-file workers above all else.
Similarly, the Democratic Party must recognize that its reliance on union bosses is no longer a winning strategy. Democrat politicians need to reconsider their relationship with unions, refocus on policies that truly benefit working-class voters, and rebuild trust with a base that has become disillusioned.
Ultimately, the best course of action is for unions to serve their members’ work interests, not the political interests of union leaders or radical activists.