Leo XIV may be a good sign of the times, for these times

Maybe Robert Francis Prevost is no Franklin D. Roosevelt in a clerical collar, but when the  Catholic Church picked the 69-year-old Chicago-area Cardinal as its next Pope in a 24-hour conclave ending May 8, many felt relief and hope.

First, his election was seen as continuing positions Pope Francis took during his 12 years as pontiff. Also – and maybe more significant to working people – Prevost took the name of Leo XIV, a nod to the previous Pope Leo, the XIII, who became known as “the workers’ pope” for clarifying the Church’s social teachings.

Catholic Labor Network (CLN) director Clayton Sinyai welcomed Pope Leo XIV as the 267^th Bishop of Rome.

“As the first North American-born pontiff, Pope Leo XIV brings a unique blend of pastoral experience, theological depth, and a profound commitment to social justice that resonates deeply with our mission to uphold the dignity of work and the rights of workers,” he said. “The choice of the name ‘Leo XIV’ signifies a continuity with Pope Leo XIII, whose seminal encyclical Rerum Novarum (“Of New Things”), laid the foundation for modern Catholic social teaching by affirming the rights of workers to organize and the importance of just labor conditions.”

During his 1878-1903 papacy, Leo XIII focused on advocating for the rights of workers, calling for fair pay, fair working conditions, and the right to join unions.

Chicago Federation of President Labor Bob Reiter said, “By selecting the name Leo, the new pope signaled his solidarity with working people and gave a nod to his South Side working-class roots.”

Cardinal Blase Joseph Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, said he expects Pope Leo XIV “feels an obligation” to speak to current events, “real challenges globally” – from labor and human rights to immigration and climate change.

“He is a Midwesterner who is not afraid of hard work, who is practical and not afraid of getting things done and bringing people together,” Cupich continued. “He’s very smart – he picks up things quickly. But he also has the ability to listen to other people and make sure that people with different opinions than his are listened to.”

Pope Leo grew up in suburban Dolton, one of three brothers in a family of Creole ancestry. A lifelong White Sox fan, he’s voted in different primaries as a Democrat and a Republican.

An altar server in his youth, Prevost graduated high school in 1973 from the St. Augustin Seminary Prep School in Michigan, earned a degree in math from Villanova in 1977, and joined the Augustinian order as a friar in 1982, ordained shortly after earning a Master of Divinity degree from Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union. He earned a doctorate in 1987 at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome and served for about 20 years in Peru as a missionary, professor and bishop, becoming a dual citizen of the United States and Peru. He was elevated to cardinal in 2023 and worked in the Vatican for the last two years.

There’s reason for at least guarded optimism for his example and leadership of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church and, like Francis, many others worldwide.

At his inaugural Mass on May 18 in St. Peter’s Square before about 200,000 pilgrims and foreign dignitaries, Pope Leo vowed to work for unity in a polarized Catholic Church and world.

“We still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalizes the poorest.”

Although he mentioned wars in Ukraine and Gaza, his expressed hope for negotiations there could be seen by workers as someone willing and able to mediate or arbitrate between parties.

Another Catholic leader from Illinois, Cardinal Wilton Daniel Gregory, former Bishop of Belleville and the retired Archbishop of Washington, D.C., said, “I could not be more grateful that it happened in the Holy Year of Hope. We are pilgrims of hope, something that Pope Francis had initiated. I felt comfortable saying to Pope Leo – one Southsider of Chicago to another – ‘I promise you my respect, my fidelity and my love’.”

Although it was probably not intentional, on the same day that President Trump scheduled a controversial military parade June 14 in Washington, D.C., costing more than $45 million, Pope Leo was scheduled to be featured in a special program organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago. Celebrating the pontiff’s election, the event was to include music, Mass, a film, speakers and prayer, all at Rate Field, the Sox ballpark.

The native son from Chicagoland also was to deliver a video message to spectators.

"Pope Leo XIV will greet us in Chicago and offer a special video message to the young people of the world, which will be broadcast first from our event," the Chicago Archdiocese said

In Central Illinois, Peoria Bishop Louis Tylka in a prepared statement said, “We welcome the news of the election of the new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, with hearts full of joy and hope.

“United with the universal Church, we are ready to walk in faith alongside our new Holy Father, trusting in God's providence and grace … to bring Christ to the world – a world so in need of healing, truth and peace ... as he begins his ministry of service, unity and love.”

CLN’s Sinyai added, “Scripture reminds us, ‘The laborer deserves his wages’ (Luke 10:7), and the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that ‘work is for man, not man for work’ (CCC 2428). Pope Leo XIV’s papacy offers renewed hope that these principles will be upheld and advanced, ensuring that the Church remains a steadfast advocate for the rights and dignity of all workers.”

Are more unionists turning on Trump?

Upon taking office for his second term, Donald Trump has moved more swiftly and broadly than many labor leaders expected.

Three months into Trump II, however, unions are continuing to fight through lawsuits, participating in rallies with many other Americans, and at “town halls,” with or without elected representatives.

Construction has been a sector seen as more pro-Trump than most unions, but two of Trump’s most vocal critics are from the trades. Painters President Jimmy Williams said many construction unions are souring on Trump as a result of Trump’s cancellation of subsidies and various projects, including about $100 billion in planned construction having been scrapped.

“It’s been chaos, economic chaos,” Williams said. “Then there are the immigration raids, and Trump’s sheer lack of wanting to follow the rules and the law. It’s scary. We are more conservative than most unions, but what you’re seeing right now from the Trump administration is not conservative. You’re seeing fascism.”

Sean McGarvey, President of the North America’s Building Trade Unions, has angrily demanded Trump bring home Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a wrongly deported immigrant who was a member of the Sheet Metal Workers’  union. Garcia must “be returned to us and his family now,” McGarvey said. “Bring him home!”

Although union households in 2024 backed Harris over Trump 53% to 45%, and most unions endorsed the Democrats’ ticket, according to exit polls, two influential unions didn’t – the Fire Fighters and the Teamsters. (However, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien later blasted Trump’s nomination of management attorney Crystal Carey from a “union-busting” law firm to be General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board [NLRB].)

Also, UAW President Shawn Fain – who campaigned for Harris but supported one of Trump’s proposed tariffs (on auto imports) – weeks later slammed Trump for killing federal workers’ bargaining rights, replacing NLRB members, and attacking Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

“That’s not good for the working class,” Fain said.

Reporting in Slate, Steven Greenhouse said, “Most unions are angry as hell about Trump 2.0,” and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler forcefully agreed.

“We’ve been facing a barrage of attacks from the administration,” she told Greenhouse. .“They’re slashing jobs. They’re ripping up union contracts. They’re cutting services. Trump’s delivered on nothing that he promised. We would say his scorecard is a fail.”

AFL-CIO Treasurer Fred Redmond, a Steelworker, commented, “Now we’re seeing buyer’s remorse. A lot of our members that voted for Trump are scratching their heads thinking ‘Well, we didn’t know he was going to make it an attack on collective bargaining, that he was going to devalue programs like OSHA’ – things that are important to working families.”

Indeed, a new AFL-CIO poll shows that most unionists think the country is moving in the wrong direction.

Most Americans agree with those results, according to Pew Research. A majority, 52%, agrees with the statement that “Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy” and also oppose Trump’s attempt to end the U.S. Constitution’s birthright citizenship provision and his administration’ policy on migrants.

Meanwhile, public confidence in about a dozen U.S. institutions shows organized labor is at the top, according to Gallup polls. Labor is the only institution that’s gained people’s trust since 2009, with the rest, including Big Business, the Military and Criminal Justice, all falling. Labor is up about 18% in those 16 years; the Presidency is down about 44%.

Ethan Young from the global union federation Public Service International said unions’ increasing defiance is a hopeful sign.
“Organized labor's resistance represents more than unionism. It's become a defense of the [U.S.] social contract itself. As unions deploy their organizational might through strikes, lawsuits, legislative pushes and voter mobilization drives, they're fighting not just for contracts and benefits, but for the fundamental character of democracy. Their victories, from courtroom triumphs to workplace organizing wins, provide guidance and inspiration for the broader fights to defend democracy in the U.S. and globally.”

In April, Shuler foreshadowed that observation.

“Democracy does not defend itself,” Shuler said. “Nor can we expect politicians to save us from autocrats’ clutches. Democracy means rule by the people. Fifteen million working [members of 63 AFL-CIO unions] know ‘my voice matters.’

“Organized labor gives voices a platform,” she added. “We amplify them wherever we go. Make sure every politician claiming to carry the banner of the working class knows: ‘What we’ve seen the past 100 days ain’t it’.”

Longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader recently wrote, “Expanding numbers of Americans from all backgrounds who see the deadly months ahead of Dangerous Donald need to sum up their demands in the siren call “YOU’RE FIRED!” just as was done to President Richard Nixon for far less serious transgressions in 1974.”

In a barrage of Executive Orders, the Trump White House “came immediately for our federal workforce, cutting funding Congress appropriated, firing workers with no due process, lying about their performance. trying to get other workers to quit,” Shuler said. “Authoritarians always start with organized labor.”

Michael Podhorzer, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress and a former AFL-CIO political director, in The Contrarian wrote, “There’s a reason that taking out unions is one of the first pages in the oligarchic coup playbook – as in Chile, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Indonesia, Spain, Myanmar and more.

“The major elements of the labor coalition have come together,” Podhorzer said, “and Trump has certainly reinforced that.”

Illinois’ jobless number may have been misleading

Any worker’s loss of employment is bad news, but recent social-media posts apparently crowing about the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits in Illinois last month probably overlooked a lot of context.

(Also, of course, anyone can post almost anything on Facebook, etc.)

Nationally, the number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits increased more than expected in the week ending May 24, and the unemployment rate picked up slightly.

Those initial claims were up 14,000 to 240,000, more than expected by economists, who’d predicted 230,000.

Illinois in mid-May had 10,065 initial jobless claims – up 1,162 from previous reporting. A chart posted by a MAGA troll displayed Illinois as the country’s worst state for initial jobless claims. However, checking it out, Illinois’ initial claims figure was actually No. 5 – after California (41,552), New York (13,998), Pennsylvania (10,248) and, showing the phenomenon is not limited to “blue states,” Texas (16,266).

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has attributed recent job losses to changes in four main sectors: manufacturing, construction, wholesale, and retail.

Also, given the calendar, some schools’ early summer dismissals could add to the numbers, which are starting to reflect newly unemployed federal workers, and recently discharged veterans, BLS noted.

Two factors in particular affected new jobless claims, factors not shown in simple bar graphs: Trump’s tariff threats and simple demographics.

What should be an obvious observation is that those top five states in initial claims have much higher populations and far more people employers than most states.

According to the BLS, Illinois has 6.1 million employed people; California has 18 million, New York 9.9 million, Pennsylvania 6.2 million and Texas 14.3 million.

The higher the labor force, the more likely the numbers of employers and workers will be higher.

Also, the job market and the economy overall are being influenced by the one-again/off-again trade war started, stopped and stalled by President Trump.

“There has been an uptick in layoffs because of economic uncertainty as Trump’s aggressive trade policy makes it challenging for businesses to plan ahead,” reported financial correspondent Lucia Mutikani from Reuters.

At the Federal Reserve’s May policy meeting, the Fed noted that there was “considerable uncertainty” over the job market’s outlook, adding “outcomes would depend importantly on the evolution of trade policy as well as other government policies.”

Minutes from the Fed meeting say policymakers “assessed that there was a risk that the labor market would weaken in coming months.”

Indeed, economists now forecast June job numbers to be up from this year’s range off 205,000 to 243,000.

In Illinois, the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s most recent WARN notices of closings and layoffs (disclosed under the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) reported 15 employers’ eliminating jobs, either temporarily or permanently. Eight reported affecting more than 50 workers, led by three companies: Chicago’s Oak View Group at McCormick Place, an “arts, entertainment and recreation company,” laying off 203 workers; Savanna’s Elkay Plumbing Products Co. closing and eliminating 135 jobs, and Freeburg’ Hubbell, Inc, an electrical supply company, laying off 110 workers.

History, heritage can help organized labor keep its independence

When the 4^th of July approaches, many Americans think of moments of history: ragtag Minutemen in tricorn hats shooting from the timber as Redcoats march by in straight lines, or stirring comments from Thomas Paine or Patrick Henry, or Thomas Jefferson’s bold Declaration.

But each Independence Day may be a time for organized labor to reacquaint everyday workers with different declarations – unionizing, striking and struggling against difficult odds.

Before facts are erased in textbooks eliminating “disagreeable” moments from the past, mandated by MAGA-dominated states, or government records scrubbed – as the federal administration has tried to do concerning women and minorities, such as World War II’s Tuskegee Airmen or the contributions of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs – working people should remember the sacrifices made and courage displayed by labor.

The days before July 4 offer a glimpse of labor history.

JUNE 22: In 1922 during a United Mine Workers, strikers and supporters in Herrin, a mining town south of Carbondale, Ill., fought with strikebreakers, resulting in the deaths of more than 20 scabs.

JUNE 25: U.S, workers gained some federal protection in the 1938 passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which provided for a minimum wage, restrictions on child labor and other rights too many take for granted.

JUNE 27: The birthday of Emma Goldman. Born in 1869, the Lithuanian immigrant became a U.S. citizen in 1887, but – in a chilling reminder of current events – the labor activist, feminist and revolutionary was deported to Russia in 1919 as part of the infamous “Palmer Raids” supervised by J. Edgar Hoover in the first “Red Scare.”

She eventually denounced Russia for its tyranny and left for England, Spain and, finally Canada, continuing to advocate for workers’ and women’s rights.

JUNE 28: Maybe seeking to differentiate a U.S. holiday from the rest of the world, President Grover Cleveland signs a bill making the first Monday in September Labor Day (as opposed to May 1 in most of the planet).

JUNE 29: The National Labor Relations Board is set up by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934 to enforce federal labor law.

JULY 2: Americans gain protections against discrimination based on race, color, gender, religion or national origin after President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

JULY 3: About 2,000 textile workers in Paterson, N.J., went on strike in 1835 for better working conditions – such as a six-day work week and an 11-hour day. At least 20 mills were affected, and many of the strikers were children.

 

Most days have key moments for labor.

No Executive Order can sanitize our heritage if we know it and pass it on, and we continue to resist those who’d take our independence from us.

‘Big Beautiful Bill’ has uglier pieces

As the Labor Paper reported in April, H.R. 1 – the budget measure Republicans named the “Big Beautiful Bill” in fealty to Trump’s complimentary comment – would gut Medicaid and food assistance for millions of Americans.

President Trump and the GOP want to extend Trump’s 2017’s “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” that mostly enriched the wealthy and big corporations – action that would add $4.6 trillion to the national debt over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The highest-income households (the top 5%) would receive more than 45% of the benefits if expiring parts of the 2017 tax cuts are extended, says the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

A ”reverse Robin Hood” stealing from the poor to give to the rich, the bill would raise taxes on Americans earning under $15,000 in 2027, according to Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation. By 2029 and thereafter, the bill would continue to increase taxes on them, plus people earning between $15,000 and $30,000 a year.

The 1,116-page bill would increase the incomes of the top 1% by nearly $70,000 in the first year, giving that elite a collective $124 billion tax cut, according to Penn Wharton, but reduce by 4% the take-home incomes of the bottom 10% of income earners by the end of the decade, according to CBO.

If the bill passes the Senate, 14 million individuals may lose health coverage, while about 2.7 million households may go without food assistance, says Accountable.US, a nonpartisan watchdog group. The Urban Institute says that would mean their monthly grocery budgets would fall $254.

“The House Republicans’ bill is a budget for the billionaires,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “While this leadership has tried to claim they’re the party of workers, they are pushing forward a bill that will cause historic levels of harm to working families.

“It will throw millions of children, seniors and families off their health care, gut funding for nursing homes and rural hospitals, cut investments in jobs of the future, and push food assistance out of reach—all to give the rich and big corporations another tax cut.”

In West Central Illinois, thousands of residents represented by two Republicans who voted for the House bill could be hurt. According to ACASignups.net, 139,015 residents in Rep. Darin LaHood’s 16th District receive Medicaid, and 174,085 Medicaid recipients are in Mary Miller’s 15th District.

Health-care cuts in the measure would lead to an additional 51,000 deaths, according to a study from professors at the Yale University School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Health Economics.

 

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

Beyond these devastating effects, the bill’s final form passed by the House on May 22 (by one vote) has a host of other proposals threatening Americans.

“It can be difficult to wrap your mind around these changes because the GOP legislation calls for not one big transformation but a bunch of smaller ones,” wrote Jonathan Cohn of The Breakdown newsletter.

Virtually everyone faces dire consequences from some of these provisions:

 

Health coverage

Adding an 80-hour monthly work requirement for Medicaid eligibility would “save money” by discouraging participation by some avoiding new hoops to jump through, and if otherwise needy citizens are removed from Medicaid, they’d also lose coverage from the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). The CBO says 10.3  million Americans could lose coverage.

The Affordable Care Act also would have new red tape imposed and subsidies dropped, creating a loss of health coverage for many Americans.

Medicare is in jeopardy, too, according to Marketwatch.

“Because the massive debt increase in the measure triggers a 2010 law requiring offsets, [so] it will cut Medicare, as well, by an estimated $500 billion,” explained historian Heather Cox Richardson.

Drew Altman, president of the health research organization KFF, added, “Proportionately, that’s a much bigger enrollment and coverage loss than projected for Medicaid.”

 

Federal workers

H.R. 1 would force federal workers who haven’t already been laid off to become “at-will” workers who can be discharged at any time, or to retain their current protections but sacrifice retirement provisions to keep their civil service job.

"It really amounts to charging people for their basic rights," said Daniel Horowitz, the legislative director of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 820,000 government workers.

AFGE said the provision is "un-American, anti-union [and] morally bankrupt. If enacted, this change will lead to the eventual extinction of the merit-based, nonpartisan civil service, which is certainly its true purpose."

 

The courts

The bill would create a new hurdle for filing lawsuits, mandating a bond be paid in order to sue. A related proposal would block any funding to enforce contempt of court orders, which would shield a defendant, whether a big corporation or the President, from judicial orders.

It’s a “terrible” idea, said Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law:

“This provision is meant to limit the power of federal courts to use their contempt power,” he said. “It does so by relying on a relatively rarely used provision of the Rules that govern civil cases in federal court. Rule 65(c) says that judges may issue a preliminary injunction or a temporary restraining order ‘only if the movant gives security in an amount that the court considers proper to pay the costs and damages sustained by any party found to have been wrongfully enjoined or restrained’.”

 

Universities

The bill would raise taxes on universities. For example, Harvard would have an increase from the 1.4% tax it pays on its endowment’s earnings to 21%.

 

Ensuring generational wealth

The measure would sweeten a gift to the rich, the estate-tax exemption. It has been a way to leave up to $27 million to descendants without paying a cent in taxes, but that would increase to $30 million.

Americans for Tax Fairness said, “This handout to lucky heirs and heiresses will cost over $200 billion in lost revenue over 10 years.”

 

Another perk for the rich

The bill would quadruple tax breaks tied to home values, which “overwhelmingly benefits wealthy, white households,” according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

 

Exploiting the environment

The measure would weaken environmental protections in several ways, including opening up national forests to logging; allowing mining, drilling and other extraction on public lands; ending tax incentives for vehicle efficiency and clean-energy initiatives; and withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, halting the United States’ involvement in climate-change solutions.

 

Stroking the President’s ego

The bill would rename the Treasury Department’s holdover savings program from Money Accounts for Growth and Advancement (MAGA) to “Trump Accounts.”

 

Schools

The measure would eliminate the Dept. of Education, but create a back-door subsidy for private schools’ vouchers by changing what’s now a tax deduction to a tax credit.

 

No AI protections

The bill would prohibit states from regulating Artificial Intelligence.

 

In the Senate, the bill faces a White House deadline of July 4 for passage.

“Any member of Congress who votes for this bill is voting to betray the working people of this country,” Shuler added, “—and  we won’t forget it.”

'They come for one of us, they come for all of us'

Sometimes it may seem like organized labor is getting backed into a corner by an unholy alliance of anti-union Right-wingers and billionaires, but unions aren’t yet on the ropes, much less out for the count.

In fact, in communities from coast to coast, mobilization is alive, and at workplaces internal organizing is increasing. All that promises to build momentum to fight harder for survival in general, and in particular to prepare for negotiations this year.

This month, some big contracts start to expire, and bargaining and possibly striking present themselves.

Expiring this month is UFCW Local 700’s contract for 3,800 Kroger workers in Indianapolis, as well as the Allied Grocery agreement in the Pacific Northwest, covering 30,000 members of UFCW Local 3000 and Teamsters Local 38 across several supermarket chains.

IBEW Locals 191 (Everett, Wash.) and 520 (Austin, Texas) both have May 31 expirations, covering 2,000 and 1,900 workers, respectively. Local 191 is active in Boeing plants and 520 in Samsung and SpaceX factories, and membership is growing in both locals.

Contracts expire May 31 and June 30 for more than 6,000 Catholic Health and Kaleida Health workers in two Communications Workers (CWA) locals in Buffalo, N.Y.

California K-12 teachers in school districts covering more than 50,000 educators in Los Angeles (35,000), Oakland (3,000), San Diego (7,000), and San Francisco (6,500) timed their contract expirations to all end next month.

Some 3,000 IUE-CWA members at GE aerospace and generator manufacturing facilities have contracts expiring June 22.

Almost 30,000 faculty members, coaches, counselors, librarians, and other higher-ed workers in the California State University system have a contract that expires June 30.

The Operating Engineers’ master contract for 10,000 workers who run heavy equipment for a Southern California contractors’ association expires June 30.

Also expiring June 30 are contracts at 15 nonprofit legal agencies serving low-income clients in New York City, where workers’ unions lined up their contracts to expire the same day. The pacts cover 2,500 workers in an SEIU local and two United Auto Workers locals.

The Machinists have another Boeing agreement expiring July 27 affecting 2,500 members of IAM District 837 in St. Louis, where they build fighter jets.

This fall, contracts expire for almost 60,000 workers at health-care giant Kaiser Permanente on September 30.

In addition, ongoing disputes, tensions and talks remain with U.S. Postal Service unions; in transportation, with railroad and airline unions; in retail and restaurants, with Teamsters stepping up to deal with Amazon and SEIU continuing to support Starbucks workers; in the public sector from state, county and municipal employees to federal workers; in media, struggling against government threats and ownership greed; and more.

The “wild card” in this bout isn’t Donald Trump – though his administration is a huge opponent. It’s the positive that labor’s 71% approval rating among Americans is growing with younger workers – 91% of workers younger than 30 supports unions.

“This is a generational turning point,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, one of action and solidarity.

“Solidarity is not a word on a sign,” she said. “When I talk to steelworkers, nurses, bus drivers and hotel workers, I hear the opposite of division. Nobody’s asking for more tax breaks for Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos at the expense of Medicare or Social Security.

“Solidarity is lived out every single day,” she added. “When they come for one of us, they come for all of us.”

‘There’s something happening here’ But rallies need unions, like unions need community support

There wasn’t an absence of union people in the crowd of more than 1,000 stretching between Knoxville and Wisconsin on U.S. Route 150 in Peoria on May 3.

But there was no organized labor.

There were no banners from the Teachers, Building Trades, Teamsters, SEIU or Postal Workers despite those unions’ lawsuits and other grievances over, respectively, threats in education, illegally deported Sheet Metal Worker Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Amazon’s ties to the White House, and risks of Medicaid cuts hurting people who need home health care, nursing home assistance, privatizing the Post Office – much less a trade war affecting consumers and workers.

Still, Marty Clinch, a retired IBEW worker demonstrating with a half dozen other electrical workers, said it’s time to call it like it is.

“Everything they say is complete BS. They’re pulling stuff all the time, and it’s affecting us all,” he said. “And as time goes on, more and more people are going to get ticked off.”

On the heels of April’s “Hands Off” rallies and other national days of action, Americans upset with the Whie House and its loyalists and billionaires upending the country and culture have turned out in U.S. communities from Anchorage to Gulfport, Miss., plus big cities, small towns, and mid-sized markets like Peoria.

Speaking to a crowd in New York City, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said, “[The Trump administration] should be afraid of the power of labor and everyday workers across the country. When they see us gather in the street, you should know that when I go back to Washington, they talk about it and they are getting very afraid. They are getting nervous.”

It was similar at recent events in west-central Illinois on April 26, too.

* That day, about 100 people turned out at the Universalist Unitarian Church in Peoria, where the League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria held a “Shine On Democracy” rally and roundtable. There, LWV Vice President for Issues & Advocacy Kathy Cortez talked about a proposed law endangering voting rights, Peoria Area Food Bank manager Wayne Cannon listed dire consequences if Congress passes the White House’s “big, beautiful bill” that could cut SNAP food stamps, and others discussed Trump eliminating public media, officials not following the rule of law, withholding funding for the arts, and an overall constitutional crisis.

But there was no labor presence.

* That afternoon, the UAW hall in East Peoria was filled to capacity with more than 800 people gathered to protest area Congressman Darin LaHood’s surrender to the MAGA agenda (and refusal to hold town halls or meet with people). There, the energy was boisterous, but no union banners were raised besides the Autoworkers, affixed to walls.

The frequent chant was “We won’t go back!” and dozens of signs defended veterans and voters, teachers and  libraries, workers whose government jobs and programs have been eliminated and individual rights.

Ill. Rep. Sharon Chung (D-91^st) said public participation is vital, and she recalled when she felt called to get involved politically.

“I lived in a neighborhood in Bloomington-Normal where on one side of the street the Representative was Darin LaHood, and other side was Rodney Davis,” she said. “Talk about a crap sandwich!”

LaHood faces challenges, from his constituents and from three newcomers considering runs against him. Joe Albrights from East Peoria and Paul Nolley from Rockford have filed their candidacies, and Rivian worker Scott Best may throw his hat into the ring.

Retired autoworker Rick Taylor said the crisis can’t be about one person, whether Darin LaHood or Donald Trump.

“It’s not just a crazy man,” he said. “It’s a crazy group of men.”

Heather McIlvaine-Newsad, a WIU professor commenting about rousing rallies, said, “Sometimes big energy is needed to mark change. If you are looking for that kind of energy, you don’t have to look far to find it. Across the country – from the lettuce fields of California to classrooms in Chicago, from kitchens in Queens to loading docks in Atlanta – working people are rising up and speaking out against the injustices in our country.”

In Macomb, she added, the focus was civil rights, adequate funding for public schools at all levels, and fair labor rights.

Nationally, the 50501 grassroots group that’s helped organizers of marches and rallies said, “Donald Trump has defied a direct, binding order from the United States Supreme Court. This is the moment that confirms our Constitution has been crippled.”

Taylor, the retiree from UAW Local 974, blasted the White House, Congressional Republicans, and Cabinet officials appointed for their loyalty instead of their expertise.

“They don’t really care about anything,” Taylor said. “They want to take for themselves.”

His wife Marsha added, “It’s been building. I was at Darin’s last town hall meeting, I think 2017 at Five Points, and even then there was a lot of booing and howling.”

Steve Fairbanks, a veteran and retired AFSCME worker whose dad was an electrical worker for about 40 years, said the May 3 rally was larger than the April 26 event.

“People at first can be a little timid, maybe hesitant to protest,” he said. “But they came out today.”

In Washington, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said, “We have tens of thousands of people showing up to rallies, and protests, and town halls – working folks who are ready to do something. We have entire communities coming out to protect their immigrant neighbors. We have brave lawyers taking the fight to this administration and winning in court, so that thousands of Americans can return to their jobs.

“And we have people continuing to organize,” she continued. “Workers are saying: ‘If the government isn’t going to fight for me, or raise my wages to a livable wage, I’ll stand with my co-workers and do it myself’.”

In the Peoria area, Clinch said people absolutely have to step up, and that include labor unions.

“As we used to say on the job site outside,  “Get off your ass, get on your feet. Get out of the shade and into the heat.”