Conor here: Maybe I’m missing it, but I read a handful of news pieces on this event, stopped by Bernie’s websites, as well as the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA website and couldn’t find any more details on Union Now’s plans. Perhaps more information is coming soon, but it would be nice to know specifically, how Union Now will, as Mamdani claimed, support workers and provide them with more resources? Will they be using their fundraising lists to steer money toward organizing and striking workers or was this just more of a one-off feel-good event?
By Brett Wilkins, a staff writer for Common Dreams. Originally posted at Common Dreams.
As Republican policies, union-busting corporations, and the imminent threat of artificial intelligence put unprecedented pressure on the US workforce, Sen. Bernie Sanders headlined Sunday’s launch of a movement “to strengthen the labor movement and expand worker power across the country.”
Sanders (I-VT) spoke at the “Union Now: Building the Labor Movement” rally at Terminal 5 in Hell’s Kitchen in Midtown Manhattan alongside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA international president Sara Nelson, and other labor and social movement leaders.
“Unless we fundamentally transform our economic and political systems, the worst is yet to come,” Sanders warned. “If the middle class of this country is going to survive, we must understand that status quo politics and status quo economics is no longer good enough.”
LIVE Bernie Sanders Zohran Mamdani UNION NOW Rally in NYC https://t.co/uC6atxCK7N
— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) April 12, 2026
“It’s absolutely important that all of us here and every American understand that in the ruling class of this country today, there is an extraordinary level of arrogance and cruelty,” the senator said.
“The truth is that the 1% the people on top, people running this country have never, ever had it so good,” Sanders told the crowd. “But the sad reality is that for these people, all that they have is not good enough. They want more and more and more, and they don’t care who they step on to get what they want.”
“These guys are extremely, extremely greedy people, and they could care less in terms of what happens to our children, what happens to our parents and our grandparents, and what happens to our environment today,” the senator argued.
“One of the goals of the oligarchs and the media that they own is to make ordinary people feel that there is nothing that they can do to shape the future,” he added. “And what we are here today to say to [Elon] Musk and his friends: Go to hell.”
Mamdani, who marked 100 days in office, said: “When we talk about the importance of taking on the crisis of income inequality, we know that the most effective tool to do so is increasing union density. Organizing drives and strikes can, frankly, be lonely work. So Union Now is going to support workers and provide them with more resources, and my administration will stand right alongside them. This moment demands nothing less.”
Mamdani: The city is many things. It is the global capital of business and technology. It is the home of the best pizza in the world—the best music in the world, the best theater in the world. But above all else, New York City is a union town. There is no New York City without… pic.twitter.com/HYO1PWjARL
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 12, 2026
“AI and robots are coming for human jobs,” the mayor warned. “Worker protections are being eroded. There are companies that think that exploitation is a viable business model. They are wrong.”
Nelson asserted that “growing union membership and bargaining power is crucial for workers’ rights and economic justice.”
“Too often, the boss has all the power to starve workers during a fight,” she said. “Union Now will work with unions directly to ensure workers have the means to win.”
Brittany Norris, a Delta AFA Organizing Committee member and flight attendant, told the crowd that “when it comes to striking, when it comes to public actions, a lot of those things cost money and it’s a lot of time, dedication, and efforts coming from the workers.”
“We continuously hear about the profits… that our industry is making, but then we’re begging for a raise that comes up close to what the cost of living increase is every year,” she added.
So inspiring to rally with @UnionNow_, a new initiative led by @FlyingWithSara to support workplace organizing across the country. 🔥 speech by @BernieSanders. pic.twitter.com/lt42Scd3lW
— Claire Valdez (@claireforny) April 12, 2026
Sunday’s Union Now launch comes amid Sanders’ ongoing “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which has drawn large crowds across the country, including in so-called “red” states. The rally also follows last year’s “Workers Over Billionaires” Labor Day rallies and marches in over 1,000 locations.
The Union Now launch also coincides with growing wealth inequality not only in the United States but around a world in which the richest 10% of the global population own three-quarters of planetary wealth and account for nearly half of all consumer spending.
“If [President Donald] Trump and his fellow oligarchs get their way, we will be living in a society where fewer and fewer people have more and more wealth and more and more power, where democracy will be undermined, where workers will be thrown out on the street with no recourse,” Sanders said Sunday. “That is not the America we want for ourselves or for our kids.”
“The good news is,” he added, “if we stand together and we not let Trump and his friends divide us up, when we stand together and fight for a government that works for all of us, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish.”
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This is very interesting. Indeed a difficult challenge to build power for the people in general, employees, unemployed… against oligarchs. I wonder whether this would need or better, require, international cooperation.
Any movement or organization with Bernie’s name on it makes my mind go to what he did after 2016 and 2020…nothing. Our Revolution and Brand New Congress were just wastes of time, money, and effort.
Bernie is the staus quo! literal first class “liberal” (but i’m sure Bernie flies first class cuz of medicial issues, lol)
https://www.aol.com/articles/bernie-sanders-flies-first-class-132054192.html
I hear he has three houses too. 🙄
Sanders could start with himself. Despite Stephanie Kelton’s presence on his 2016 presidential campaign and her work for the (his) Senate Budget Committee, Sanders continues to bray about taxing the rich to pay for spending. His time has passed.
Even MMT folks understand the importance of taxing the rich. It’s independent of finding spending.
“… taxing the rich to pay for spending.” is an altogether different matter than “… the importance of taxing the rich”. Sanders understands this difference. Making explicit the difference is understanding.
Sheepdogs gotta herd.
But is there an action plan to change the status quo?
Wow, great plan!
“When we talk about the importance of taking on the crisis of income inequality, we know that the most effective tool to do so is increasing union density. Organizing drives and strikes can, frankly, be lonely work. So Union Now is going to support workers and provide them with more resources, and my administration will stand right alongside them. This moment demands nothing less.”
This ignores elephants:
1. Sites that unionise can get shut down or the company ignores the union (e.g. Starbucks) with little legal redress.
2. Companies like Walmart are allowed to hire multiple part time workers with non-guaranteed hours as opposed to full time workers with guaranteed hours and other benefits.
3. Underpaid workers can’t afford any action that risks their job.
Underpaid workers need legally enforceable agency. Unions aren’t enough.
Correct. Sanders has accomplished nothing. He tilts at windmills.
At the 2025 CWA convention in Pittsburgh a resolution for national single payer passed the News Guild (sub section of the CWA) but incredibly was never brought to the whole CWA convention floor for debate. Given that healthcare is the biggest issue now according to public opinion polls and a national single payer system would be a huge boost to the working class, why was the union and Nelson silent? Mamdani also says nothing on the benefit to the people of NYC if national single payer were passed. Why? Because he is beholden to many of these same unions that are led by misleaders tied to the insurance industry and corrupted Democrats. Why follow them?
The notion that capitalists will grant workers concessions through peaceful means is the epitome of naive liberalism. In order to stand up to ruthless billionaires, the working class must be just as ruthless. Imagine if every Amazon worker set their warehouse on fire and shouted, “All you had to do was pay us enough to live!” Jeff Bezos would have no choice but to give in.
I’m going to paraphrase Cory Doctorow, how is definitely not the first person to point this out, this in regards to the NLRB being gutted last year.
“Labor laws didn’t create labor militancy, labor militancy created labor laws. The referee tearing up the rulebook for the benefit of one team doesn’t mean the game is over, it just means the other team doesn’t have to play by the rules either.”
That’s the gist of what he said. Labor needs to learn to be militant again, and not just be treated as something you join and give a part of your paycheck to as a form of job insurance.
Genocide Bernie has done more harm to working class Americans than any right wing politician could have dreamed of doing.
Any time Bernie the Betrayer senses popular unrest coming from the left, he leaps into action along with his pseudo left cronies to redirect all the energy and enthusiasm into meaningless rallies and fundraisers for Bernie and whatever new bootlicker the Democratic party is selling as the bringer of change.
Not sure how many consecutive times he has to scam people for them to ever catch on, yet somehow he still manages to find rubes and dupes to take advantage of.
Like others, I notice that things like No Kings demonstrations and Sanders pronouncements are timed for election cycles and then return to dormancy. Trump and Republican popularity are falling fast enough to make me think Dems will prevail in any case.
In a recent interview, Jeffrey Gundlach of Doubleline Capital (major fixed income manager) was asked for a non-mainstream opinion for a year ahead. He predicted that a third party will compete in 2028. He acknowledged the barriers created to enforce the RNC/DNC duopoly but thought there is sufficient interest to make it happen. I assume that means enough money to fund armies of lawyers to fight for ballot access and organizing. Which implies some big money interest.