When members of Chicago DSA arrived at 3201 S Millard in late September last year, they were confronted by a startling question: did you hear about the helicopter? Leon, a worker at Mauser and a steward for Teamsters Local 705, shared a video that another striking worker had taken with one of the Labor Branch steering committee members. In the video, a Customs and Border Patrol helicopter could be seen circling the site of the picket for a few minutes, just above the treeline. To the workers there, it was clear that CBP had gone to Little Village to intimidate the workers, immigrant and native-born alike, as their strike against Mauser entered its twelfth week.
When people talk about unions, it’s easy to think only of their economic benefits. In posters, social media posts, and TV ads, locals for the various building trades advertise the union wage premium; non-workers make this much, while union workers make this much more. In Kenny Winfree’s “I’m a Union Card,” he sings about how the union card “could have been a Visa/could have been a MasterCard,” and how it protects workers from getting fired.
For the Teamsters who struck Mauser, unions and collective bargaining agreements offered something more than better compensation and safer working conditions (which themselves can be life or death concerns). They sought guaranteed protections against ICE raids from management. With “Operation Midway Blitz” in full swing in Chicago, this was an essential stipulation sought by the bargaining team alongside long-standing demands for higher wages and better PPE when dealing with hazardous chemicals. Their struggle, like many labor struggles, encompassed not only economic justice, but also immigrant rights, racial justice, healthcare, and the environment. For so many working people, these issues are most salient in the workplace, and the workplace is where they have the greatest power to change them.
Members of the Chicago DSA, led by solidarity captains from its Labor Branch, continued to show support for Mauser workers, walking the picket line and cooking meals. We did so because we cannot build our movement without other working people, and because we, like the Teamsters at Mauser, believe that labor is an economic justice issue; it is an immigrants’ rights issue; it is a racial justice issue; it is an environmental and health justice issue. In short, labor is the foundation which unites our struggles, and it deserves a central position in our organization.
Why unions?
While organized labor in general may have broad appeal, trade unions in particular have been a site of theoretical contestation on the left. Going back to Marx and Engels, the idea of a problematic ‘labor aristocracy’ has complicated the relationship between socialists and trade unionists. Setting these theoretical concerns aside, for the Steering Committee of the Labor Branch, our commitment to unions is grounded in the long term project to achieve socialism in the United States.
We need a dedicated place for unions and workplace organizing in Chicago DSA because of their promise for organizing workers into radical political actors. Historically, socialist and communist organizations maintained strong organizing ties with unions. Even when unions were not explicitly socialist, significant numbers of organizers and rank-and-file members were. For many unions, only the height of McCarthyism in the early 1950s led to purges of socialists and communists from their ranks. More recent union drives have seen a resurgence of left-wing politics, from the brief formation of the American Labor Party in the 1990s to union support for Bernie Sanders in 2016.
Elsewhere, in Europe social democratic and labor parties maintain strong or even institutional ties with their labor movements. Even today, as union density in Europe stands at its lowest point in decades, several European countries maintain higher union density than the U.S. had at its peak1. In contrast, as of 2025, union density in the U.S. sits at 10% for all-workers, down from a high of roughly 34% in the late 1940s. In the public sector, 32.9% of workers are unionized, compared to only 5.9% of workers in the private sector. And the influence of working people over policy and politics at both the national and local levels has fallen in proportion to the labor movement’s decline.
In an effort to undermine support for left-wing politicians and movements in the U.S., some centrist politicians have invoked the monolith of the “white working class” while ridiculing the base for left movements as no more than a mass of “white Bernie bros.” These attempts to use identitarian attacks to undermine class-centered politics are at odds with the reality that unionized workers are disproportionately workers of color and women. While it’s true that some unions do have a greater proportion of white male members than the wider population, this is a reflection of their industry rather than the institution itself. The supposed antagonism between civil rights and unions is anachronistic and out of step with the current base of most unions’ membership.
Unionized workers are more politically engaged than non-union workers: they vote more often and are more likely to contact their representatives in office. They’re also more likely than non-union workers to blame inflation on corporate greed, as opposed to the supposed inflationary pressures of higher wages. Unions also provide an infrastructure for political mobilization and the dissemination of political ideas. From talking points and trainings to broad social networks and rallies, unions facilitate the development of political agitation. Unions can even influence the political positions of their non-union managers. The push for radical politics in the United States cannot be separated from the struggles of the labor movement.
Recent CDSA Labor Branch Work:
Before detailing some of the recent work of CDSA’s Labor Branch, it’s worth pausing to reflect on the reason for our creation. Returning to the Branch’s manifesto from 2017 (when it was first created as a working group, and was most recently updated in 2020):
We are an intersectional group of labor militants who are actively rebuilding the labor movement from the ground-up through organizing the unorganized and strengthening the power of the organized rank-and-file worker. We demand a proactive labor movement, both nationally and locally, that can combat worker exploitation and respond to the new economy of fissured workplaces. We believe that in order to overthrow capitalism we need to build a militant movement of labor activists.
As Democratic Socialists, we bring an alternative vision of what the labor movement can be. Through socialism, we are determined to win the democratic control of the means of production and democracy in the workplace. We are building a socialist movement topush for broader justice for all workers.
Our work is for the broader socialist movement, which means justice for all workers. This is not just the CDSA Union Branch or CDSA Organized Labor Branch. Our organizing encompasses all working people.
Political Education
We also hold events dedicated to political education and networking. We held a townhall after May Day last year where panelists in unions shared their thoughts and experiences with attendees who were interested to hear about the difference that organized labor makes. From this meeting, CDSA gained many new members who have become active throughout the chapter. Later this spring, Labor Branch will host another meeting around union jobs and organizing which will be advertised to the public, and we hope to gain new members for the chapter as well.
Helping Members Get Union Jobs
As mentioned above, Labor Branch will be hosting a jobs fair this spring. The event will give unions and reform caucuses within unions the opportunity to advertise employment opportunities for people interested in dedicating themselves to the labor movement, whether in a currently unionized workplace or a site that is yet to be unionized. This will be an extension of the work our branch has already been doing within our chapter.
CDSA Labor’s jobs pipeline program began 4 years ago, with the goal of getting socialists into strategic union jobs where they can organize for greater union militancy and democracy. With the Rank-and-File Strategy as our guide, we help members connect to steady employment and support them in their efforts to become workplace organizers. Like much of our labor work, the pipeline is a long-term project of building relationships and responding and adjusting to shifting conditions. At upcoming meetings this spring, we’ll also be evaluating the project so far and voting on its direction.
CHIWOC
The Chicago Workplace Organizing Committee (CHIWOC) is our local chapter of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), a joint project of DSA and the United Electric with the mission to organize every workplace in the country. CHIWOC volunteers field requests for support from everyone in the Chicagoland area, from doulas to software developers, looking to solve problems that they’re facing on the job. Those volunteers then pair these workers with teams of trained local organizers who teach them the basics of workplace organizing. Those workers then get the chance to become organizers themselves and support their neighbors fighting for better treatment on the job.
The structure of CHIWOC gives workers of all backgrounds an on-ramp into building the labor movement. It also gives them the opportunity to help us discover the kind of mass organizing it takes to truly bring this movement back, and show the working class that we always had the tools to free ourselves. Over the past year, that has meant doing promotional events, holding open meetings once a month where workers can bring their issues, and hosting live trainings on how to prepare your workplace for a general strike.
Sharing Strategies and Tactics Across Unions
As mentioned above, unions hold the promise of getting people more involved in radical politics. As an organized force, unions are able to use their collective action in a lot of ways that can advance goals that we as socialists care about, including solidarity with immigrants and calling for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctioning (BDS) of Israel and a ceasefire in Gaza that respects the rights of Palestinians. For years, the Labor Branch has been a place where members of different unions sample resolutions from their locals, discuss tactics for advancing their vision in their unions, or simply commiserate over the challenges they deal with as union activists in a capitalist society. In situations where two unions were in seemingly intractable conflict, Labor Branch served as a place for rank-and-file members of those unions to come together and speak across those barriers to find shared understanding. For unions with more conservative leadership and less-democratic structures, our space has allowed for union activists to learn from each other to better organize within their union.
Strike Solidarity Support
Strike solidarity is probably the Labor Branch’s most public facing work. In support of the Teamsters who struck Mauser, we did more than just provide food and support to the workers at the job site; we made social media videos and posts to turn out more people to the picket line. Our members lobbied their union leadership to stand in solidarity with the Teamsters; we attended morale-raising rallies where co-chair Sean Duffy spoke before hundreds of people alongside Local leaders and elected officials.
Chicago DSA has been involved in strike solidarity since before 2016, but our first major instance of strike support occurred during UNITE HERE’s 2018 strike, in which workers at 30 hotels walked off the job. Many in the broader labor movement looked to CDSA to lead community efforts, and we put forward our analysis that, in a strike at 30 hotels involving multiple employers, our numbers were most powerful when concentrated on the weakest link. We focused our turnout on the Blake in the South Loop, one of the smallest of hotels, sending members before and after work to build relationships with worker-leaders. The Blake was the first hotel to capitulate to the union’s demands. We then shifted our efforts to the Monaco, the second-smallest hotel, which quickly became the next hotel to fold. The vast majority of the remaining hotels quickly followed suit.
CDSA built on this experience in the following year as we prepared for the 2019 contract fight in Chicago Public Schools. Four months before a strike was likely to start, we held a preparation meeting and came up with a plan. We engaged in community education, making sure Chicago’s broader working class knew about the contract fight and was ready to support these workers if they had to walk out. We came up with a plan to support a set of strategic picket lines across the city through our relationships with CTU and SEIU 73 members. The most elaborate of our plans was our commitment to feed strikers, students, and community members. Modeled after the Bread for Ed project East Bay DSA organized during the Oakland teachers’ strike that March, we raised and spent tens of thousands of dollars hiring food trucks for rallies. Working with local food banks, we provided groceries and assembled thousands of bagged lunches for teachers and students across the city. The strike, which ultimately lasted nearly three weeks, successfully won common good demands for libraries and nurses at more schools, and housing assistance for students.
Like all of the branches of CDSA, as well as many of the other working groups, Labor Branch allocates a significant amount of time at most branch meetings for political education. We have invited guest speakers to speak on issues past and present. We read and discuss articles written by our own members and other labor organizers. Our space facilitates conversations among union and non-union members alike to understand issues of labor, immigration, political organizing, and more.
More recently, chapter members took a variety of solidarity actions on behalf of striking Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) workers, organized by our solidarity captains. Our members held informational pickets at non-struck stores to educate the public on the No Contract, No Coffee campaign. They walked the picket line at stores on strike. They textbanked for No Contract, No Coffee and encouraged their own unions to adopt resolutions supporting the campaign. They raised money for (and donated to) the SBWU regional strike fund. They prepared meals for striking workers. They engaged in flying pickets to enlist Teamster support and the refusal to deliver products to stores in the Loop and River North. Our work has engendered genuine support for CDSA, and it even led to recruitment of new members from among SBWU members.
All of this time, effort, and money raises the question: why do we support strikes? While it may seem intuitive to some, it still merits a robust answer. For one, we want unions to succeed. Although the life and death of the International Brotherhood certainly did not rest on the success of the strike at Mauser, the battle for SBWU is quite literally existential. Starbucks is among the largest fast food chains in the world, by both revenue and number of locations. While workers have signed cards to be represented by SBWU at only a few hundred locations, there is a reason that C-suite executives at the company have fought against the union drive so viciously. DSA at the national level has asked for all of its chapters to support SBWU where union efforts took place, and with good reason. If SBWU is able to obtain a master contract, it would be a game changer.
Beyond this, we want strikes to succeed to uplift the struggle of militant workers against the complacency of conservative union leadership. For decades, across industries, union leadership has been happy to function as a backup campaign fund for Democratic candidates and as a type of employment insurance for its workers: ‘Pay your dues so we can fight against your termination.’ Labor peace was seen as a productive compromise to ensure decent wages and benefits, and avoid the risks of more militant action. If workers in Chicago go on strike and fail to win meaningful concessions, it would only embolden the opponents of strikes in other industries. However, when strikes succeed, the chorus of agitation can spread as workers become inspired by the victories of others. Militancy begets militancy, and militancy reinforces radical politics.
Lastly, what should concern socialists most about supporting striking workers is that our work can connect the struggles of workers across identities and unions. SBWU called for the support of Teamsters Local 710, and their members at QCD (the truck drivers for the logistics company that supplies Starbucks stores) honored the picket line for the unfair labor practices (ULP) strike. This meant that during the flying pickets organized by SBWU in Chicago, and in other parts of the country, stores did not get the breakfast sandwiches, cake pops, and milk that they need delivered every day to turn a profit. This February, drivers and warehouse workers at Sysco, who are also represented by Teamsters Local 710, authorized a strike. Through our leadership, dual SBWU/CDSA members have called for their fellow union members to support the Teamsters and pledge to walk the picket line if they do walk out. By developing these connections, our efforts have fostered lasting bonds of solidarity among the working class.
Our struggle is to get workers to identify with the broader Labor Movement — those in organized labor and the unorganized; those in white-collar and blue-collar jobs; private sector and public sector; immigrant and native born; across racial, ethnic, and religious lines; and across the gender and sexuality spectrum. Our aim is to raise the political consciousness of the one and only identity group which has the power to bring about a permanent change to our political economy: the working class. Our task is vital to the struggle for socialism and it needs to have its own place within CDSA in order to flourish.
Why You Should Join the Labor Branch
Although the above is a good summary of the Branch’s recent work, it is only a part of the work that our members do and have done since its creation. Our steering committee members, solidarity captains, and other leaders in the branch have many more ideas that we hope to bring to fruition in 2026 and beyond. While many of us are union members, it bears repeating that it is the Labor Branch and our long-term struggle, as socialists, is conducted on behalf of the whole working class.
We will continue to struggle on behalf of immigrant communities, and help train our members to educate their co-workers and union siblings about ICE-proofing their jobsites. We will continue to struggle alongside our trans siblings by standing strong with strike-ready nurses who fight for the continued provision of trans healthcare, including those at Howard Brown. Our members will continue to share strategies on how to democratize their unions and agitate for more militant action so that the socialist struggle can advance through more than just electoral politics.
If you have ever had the thought, “I shouldn’t get involved in Labor Branch, I’m not in a union,” or “I shouldn’t get involved in Labor Branch, I’m not that interested in unions or workplace organizing,” as the Steering Committee of Chicago DSA’s Labor Branch we are asking you to reach out to us directly or come to our monthly meeting on the second Tuesday of every month at 7:00 PM. Chicago DSA members who attend our meetings, union or not, can vote on our priorities, elect our leadership, hear reportbacks of the work being done by our members throughout the labor movement, and bring ideas of projects that the organized force of workers could support.
Labor Branch is an onramp and home in the chapter for people involved in organizing as workers. If you’re building and exercising your power as a worker, or you want to help your comrades who are, Labor Branch is for you. If there’s something that you think the Labor Branch of Chicago DSA should be doing that we aren’t yet, anyone can request for time to speak at the meeting by contacting the Steering Committee or bring a resolution for consideration. We hope to see you there!
- Union density in the US peaked at 33.4% in 1945. https://www.epi.org/publication/as-union-membership-has-fallen-the-top-10-percent-have-been-getting-a-larger-share-of-income/ 7 European-OECD countries have higher 33% union density, but many countries with lower union density have more extensive collective bargaining rights.
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