The Stories team at the Center for American Progress Action Fund works with storytellers who author op-eds about how policy impacts their lives. The team helps elevate their op-eds.
Last month, I was on site when workers at Westport Axle Lobby here in the Lehigh Valley voted overwhelmingly to unionize. It was a big moment that echoed the pride I felt late last year, when my fellow Mack Truck workers and I secured new contract protections and benefits for our plant in Macungie. And just a few days ago in Tennessee, an overwhelming majority of workers at a Volkswagen plant voted to join the United Auto Workers in a historic expansion of union representation in the South.
I’ve been a member of the United Auto Workers for 30 years now, and I’ve never seen my fellow workers — not just autoworkers, but working people in general — as fired up as they are today. That fire has brought a lot of progress for workers across the country, but these gains are not inevitable. They require sustained organizing and, frankly, leaders in office who are willing to stand with organized labor.
The above excerpt was originally published in The Morning Call.
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