Just hours after Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a member of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers — was returned from his extraordinary (and illegal) kidnapping and rendition to El Salvador, David Huerta — president of SEIU United Service Workers West—was taken into federal custody while participating in a rapid response to the ICE raid of a garment warehouse in Los Angeles.
Neither Abrego Garcia’s kidnapping and rapid deportation nor Huerta’s arrest were a purposeful targeting of labor. But they were no accident, either. The Trump administration’s escalation and doubling down are very deliberate indeed.
The reigning far Right is battling its perceived institutional enemies, whether in higher education, Big Law or even co-equal branches of government. But by baselessly and brutally attacking union members and leaders, it may have picked the wrong fight at the wrong time.
It’s been quite some time since we thought of the labor movement as a primary actor in the political life of the nation. American politics have been warped by the effects of a decades-long campaign to weaken workers and their unions. The pages of this magazine have told that story for almost 50 years — one of regulatory, legal and brute force attacks to diminish labor power. Glimmers of hope — the renewed militance of education workers, revived rank-and-file movements in the United Auto Workers and other unions, and large-scale campaigns at global employers like Amazon and Starbucks — have not reversed labor’s decline, in density or in political power.
The 2024 election may have put an exclamation point on unions’ electoral weaknesses, but the growing anti-authoritarian movement could provide a path for labor to lead. Thousands of union leaders are taking action with their members on the front lines. Millions of union members are now in the crosshairs of the administration — immigrants, LGBTQ people, people seeking reproductive healthcare, and so many more. What unites the disparate parts of a diverse workers’ movement can be the understanding that “an injury to one” truly is an injury to all.
We’ve already seen North America’s Building Trades Unions — not usually the leading progressive edge of the movement — demand not only the return of their union brother Abrego Garcia, but also the due process rights of all immigrants impacted by a broken system. We’ve seen SEIU launch national campaigns demanding free speech for workers and take action in defense not just of David Huerta, but members across the country who have been unlawfully detained and imprisoned just for speaking out. Ten major national unions, many of which formed the National Labor Network for Ceasefire in 2024 to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, have issued common demands defending the right to organize and protest. Responding to the UAW’s call to build to May Day 2028 strikes, hundreds of local unions and community allies formed the May Day Strong coalition, anchored by the Chicago Teachers Union and other education unions with a history of militant action.
If a union member hadn’t been one of the hundreds kidnapped by the administration and sent to El Salvador, we might be in a different moment. If the president of a powerful statewide union in California hadn’t taken on the role of rapid response to immigration raids, we might be in a different moment.
The modern labor movement, for all its challenges, has put itself in a pivotal position. We are in a crisis that demands two contradictory things: First, the immediate defense of a constitutional and economic order that has never worked for working people against a multifaceted authoritarian project. Then, a transformative movement to create a new constitutional and economic order anchored in multiracial democracy.
Now is the time to act.
Alex Han is Executive Director of In These Times. He has organized with unions, in the community, and in progressive politics for two decades. In addition to serving as Midwest Political Director for Bernie 2020, he’s worked to amplify the power of community and labor organizations at Bargaining for the Common Good, served as a Vice President of SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana for over a decade, and helped to found United Working Families, an independent political organization in Illinois that has elected dozens of working-class leaders to city, state and federal office. Most recently he was executive editor of Convergence Magazine.
