November 5, 2024
AFT President Randi Weingarten and AFL-CIO President Liz Schuler have issued statements on the outcome of the 2024 election. Their statements are below:
AFT President Randi Weingarten
“The voters have spoken. While we hoped and fought for a different outcome, we respect both their will and the peaceful transfer of power.
“At this moment, the country is more divided than ever, and our democracy is in jeopardy. Last night, we saw fear and anger win.
“Over the next few weeks, there will be a lot of ‘could have, should have, would have.’ But the bottom line for most people who voted—and we saw many of them as we crisscrossed the country—was ‘who will help us improve our lives, the lives of our families and our communities?’
“We believed it was Kamala Harris; more people believed it was Donald Trump.
“At the same time, our opportunity engines—labor unions and public schools—remain popular and enduring. It means we must fight for the means and agency to secure a better life, and that public education and a growing labor movement are more important than ever. For example, while Trump won Kentucky, the ballot initiative there to destroy public schools lost.
“Many people today are devastated; many are excited. Many wonder whether the arc of the universe does bend to justice; many wonder whether our democratic institutions will hold.
“These are questions that are not knowable today, but I pray we are curious and introspective enough to understand what happened and ask how we unify the country. What binds us as Americans is far more important than what divides us.
“I do know one thing: Educators, healthcare professionals and public employees will be doing everything they can to make a difference in the lives of the people they serve. And our guiding principle will be to continue to do the work to improve people’s lives: to fight for our children’s future and the promise of America.”
Read the AFT press release HERE.
AFL-CIO President Schuler
“Presidential administrations change, but the labor movement’s values do not. We stand for the freedom to organize and for the right to collectively bargain. We stand for solidarity—the kind that is built when working people stand together to take on the biggest, richest bosses and the most powerful extremist politicians. Most importantly, we know how to fight back when anyone comes after our freedoms.
“This result is a blow for every worker who depends on our elected leaders to fight for our jobs, our unions and our contracts. We organized for months to produce a nearly 17-point advantage for Vice President Kamala Harris with union members. But it is clear that the economic struggle working-class people are facing is causing real pain and neither party has sufficiently addressed it.
“Now we are faced with the reality of a second Donald Trump term. The Project 2025 agenda promises to dismantle labor unions because we are a pillar of democracy and a check on power. We’ve seen assaults on our fundamental rights before. In the days, months, and years ahead, labor’s task will be to defend working people when it happens again. The labor movement gives voice and clarity to the struggles of working people—that’s what we do, and what we’ve always done.
“Every workplace we organize is a victory for democracy. Every contract we bargain for is a step toward a fairer economy. Every strike is a lesson for rich bosses that they can’t keep the working class down. No one—not Donald Trump or JD Vance, nor any one CEO—can stop solidarity.
“Organized labor is the path forward. In unions, people have power to build a stable foundation for themselves and their families. To say, “It’s Better in a Union,” is not simply a slogan—it’s the way to level the playing field and create a path to economic security for every working person.
“The nearly 13 million union members of the AFL-CIO won’t be divided and we won’t back down. We will be there for each other and we will fight every step of the way for every worker in this country, no matter who sits in the Oval Office.”
Read Schuler’s statement HERE.