Labor Day 2026: unions more popular but worker power remains weak

cultureSep 8, 2026424,019

Gallup found 71 percent of Americans approved of unions, the highest approval since 1957, with 89 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of independents, and 52 percent of Republicans expressing support. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that wages and benefits accounted for 52.8 percent of the nation’s economic output, the lowest share since the government began measuring it in 1947, and an earlier government study in May put wages and benefits at 51 percent of national income, also a postwar low. Over the past six years inflation-adjusted wages have risen only 3 percent while corporate profits have climbed 50 percent, and profits now make up 12.1 percent of national income, the highest level since 1950. The American Prospect ties the gap between rising union popularity and falling worker income to the long erosion of union power: private-sector unionization has fallen from more than one third in the early 1950s to about 6 percent today, a decline the article attributes to weakened legal protections, employer opposition, judicial rulings, financialization, offshoring, and enabling legislation. Local Labor Day activity reflected those tensions: Union Gospel Mission hosted its 12th annual free barbecue fundraiser, serving roughly 600 plates, while national conversations featured U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross and program leader Zhavoronkova linking congressional advocacy to TradesFutures efforts to train the next generation of union construction workers. The combination of record-high approval for unions and record-low labor share of income signals increasing public appetite for stronger worker influence even as institutional and legal barriers continue to blunt union power.

Robert Reich

@rbreich.bsky.social

Corporate America’s playbook: 1) Exploit workers to maximize profits 2) Use profits to buy Congress 3) Use Congress to pass union-busting laws 4) Use these laws to further exploit workers 5) Repeat Let's break the cycle and keep building back a powerful labor movement.

319718h ago

Louie AG.9

Reagan(the antichrist of the working man) did a number on unions. Where I worked, people still voted R🤔.

AgentJoeMcJoe 🇺🇸9

Lets not ignore the fact that Jeff Bezos makes about $200,000,000 per day. How much do you make per day?

—͟͞͞★ 𝚖ⲟ𝓼ﺂ ★✨🇺🇸 👣7

I’m dumbfounded that millions of people are brainwashed into thinking corporate America has their back. The staggering pay gap between minimum-wage workers and CEOs says it all. Rebuild the labor movement!

Ella G 💙7

Here we are in America which is a giant Monopoly game: the billionaires are competing to see who can acquire all the money, hotels, houses, and property, effectively bankrupting all others. They won't stop competing and raping us all until one person is left with all of the wealth.

Ernie Johnston6

It is past time to rewrite the laws that govern how capitalism works. If #Billionaires want access to our market, they need to share profits with employees & their community. Also, limit #CEO packages to 20:1 average employee pay & make #StockBuybacks (that inflate C-suite pay) illegal again.

Claude McDonald5

You forgot, use tax cuts to buy back your stock to boost your income and the wealth of your shareholders.

Quoting this

thecapt911.bsky.social3

Vote for the Democrats and you can improve your Life not the lives of the Monied Exploiters.

Brette O'Connell3

I don't believe in Hell, but if there were such a place, a very special accommodation should be awaiting Jeff Bezos. 🔥

Progressive Rescue Dog Lover.2

Absolutely correct! What I will never understand is why would working people vote Republican when they know Republicans vote to oppose Unions?

Betty C. Jung2

This administration don’t care about anyone but fleecing the country. Turn out vote out the corrupt GOP. Let Justice prevail.

𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝

@sundaedivine.lol

Ivanka’s Labor Day: celebrating work by making sure everyone sees she escaped it.

5038h ago

Just_Vicki 🐾🎵💟🕉💙🌈🌻🇺🇲🇺🇦🇨🇦90

I can not f*cking stand this entire family.

Osborne Cox41

Wheeeee! I’m a clueless ****!

Mary 🫘39

She’s never labored over anything. That worthless bitch is as useless a human being as her worthless pedophile father.

Nobody Important 🌻🕊️🌊36

I don't believe for a minute she is actually riding that horse at that speed and is riding that smoothly. I have never heard of or seen her riding, only that her daughter does.

Akallabêth 🇺🇦28

She’s completely clueless that her reputation is shot.

Driver917

Where's a nice deep gopher hole when we need one...

Quoting this

The McNinny7

It's good she can find a horse to ride, as opposed to all the wild horses her daddy had slaughtered...

Daily Trix5

Fuck both of these bishes.

DemocracyWarrior712

Maybe the horse will trip and Ivanka will go flying!

Lee West

@whodat35.bsky.social

Labor Day 2026: 35M Latino Workers Power the U.S. Economy as Millions More Vanish From It www.latintimes.com/labor-day-20...

2817h ago

Charles Gaba ✡️

@charlesgaba.com

🚨🚨🚨 With Labor Day coming to an end, tomorrow Election 2026 starts for real. I’ve made it easy to donate *directly* to DOZENS of Democratic candidates at once for virtually every federal, statewide & state legislative race in the country. Pick a page. Pick some Democrats . Donate. Blue26.org

2810h ago

Matt Pearce

@mattdpearce.com

Some Labor Day thoughts on media labor in newsrooms and Hollywood and what to do about it. mattdpearce.substack.com/p/how-should...

From the vantage point of this Labor Day in 2026, the future of media employment looks like more and more its present, a barbell made up of two groups of workers separated by a vast chasm: (1) A dwindling labor aristocracy of unionized staff workers herded into a consolidating cluster of superstar firms, like the New York Times and a post-merger Paramount-Warner Brothers; and (2) a growing mass of skilled, burning-out and unorganized media producers engaged in freelance, independent or volunteer work, largely distributed through the same technology platforms whose extractive business models put them out of work in the first place.

279h ago

JD Ryznar

@jdryznar.bsky.social

Here’s to all of us who still vote for the bosses as we grill in our backyards afforded with livable wages. May you soon see the light and vote for your own power while it’s easy. We’re close to it being hard again. Our union forefathers bled and died so we wouldn’t have to. Let’s not blow it.

2017h ago

Onion Inc Union

@onionunion.bsky.social

Happy Labor Day from The Onion Union! Today, we're demanding better working conditions for CEOs. Let's give the power back to the 1%!

Text that reads: “This Labor Day, The Onion Union would like to remind our nation’s highest-paid CEOs that it’s never too late to dismantle American workers’ hard-fought labor rights. Go and get ‘em, tigers!”

1518h ago

Adam Hoffman

@adamhoffman.bsky.social

Things really got bad when Reagan busted the Air Traffic Controllers Union. The methods he used went on to be taught in business schools. We need to build back union power but also build a way to fight against union busting.

2015h ago

tamara nopper

@tamaranopper.bsky.social

“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has established the Office of Worker Power, a first-in-the-nation initiative to connect workers with education, resources, and organizations to help them form a union or demand better working conditions on the job.” Happy Labor Day! prospect.org/2026/09/07/m...

1715h ago

Lauren Jewett, NBCT, MA

@doitjewett.bsky.social

Generations later, I became a special education teacher and union leader, fighting for the same dignity and respect she believed every worker deserved.

Lauren speaking into a microphone at an outdoor rally, wearing a headband, sunglasses, and a blue union t-shirt with a "Labor" pin, raising her other hand while speaking. Text overlay reads "I didn't know the full depth of her story when I chose my own path. Yet, I became a special education teacher of 17 years in New Orleans, and a proud union leader on my local executive council. The fight for dignity and workers' rights wasn't just a career choice, it was in my blood.”

914h ago

voteinthemidterms.bsky.social

@voteinthemidterms.bsky.social

UNIONS ARE GOOD because they help workers achieve higher wages, better benefits, and improved working conditions through collective bargaining. They also promote economic equality and provide a stronger voice for workers in their workplaces and communities.

710h ago

Steven

@stevenchandler1.bsky.social

Exactly. The only power working people have to stop wealthy owners from robbing their workers are unions. Those that aren’t union survive only because unions exist. If Unions were not here all owners would be paying extremely low wages. Truth Matters. 🦅🦅🦅

814h ago