The AFL-CIO just called Trump’s first year in office “unrelenting attacks on working people”—and they’re ready to make 2026 a referendum on whose side politicians are really on.

WHAT’S GOING ON: AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler told the Guardian the nation’s largest labor federation is gearing up to fight Trump’s “Billionaire First” agenda heading into the midterms.

“People were pissed,” Shuler said, describing the response to Trump’s executive orders that stripped collective bargaining rights from over 1 million federal workers—what she called “the biggest attack on unions in our history.”

THE DETAILS: The fight is already producing results. On December 11, the House passed a bipartisan bill to restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers.

Now the AFL-CIO is pushing to pass it in the Senate in January, while simultaneously battling looming threats like another government shutdown and the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies.

“We’re organizing as we speak,” Shuler said. “We can move actual people, in workplaces, in every city, in every state, across the country.”

BUT BUT BUT: Trump promised to lower costs on day one and create good manufacturing jobs. Instead? He’s called concerns about affordability a “hoax” while household credit card debt hits all-time highs and Americans struggle with rent, car payments, and groceries.

“That’s not what people are experiencing,” Shuler said. Housing and healthcare remain top concerns—neither of which appears on the “Billionaire First” agenda.

WHY IT MATTERS: Here’s the thing: about 68% of Americans support labor unions, according to Gallup, even as union membership has declined for decades—a decline that’s correlated directly with skyrocketing income inequality.

With trust in institutions cratering, Shuler argues unions are uniquely positioned to break through.

“There’s only one organization left that people do trust,” she said. The ongoing Starbucks strike, with thousands of baristas fighting for their first union contract, has brought this divide into “sharp focus.”

BOTTOM LINE: Shuler’s framing is blunt: “Which side are you on?” The economy is working great for billionaires and corporations. Everyone else is piecing it together, working multiple jobs, watching AI threaten to widen the gap further.

Without guardrails—without worker power—”it’s only going to get worse.” The 2026 midterms just became a battleground over who this economy actually serves.