By Dan Soeby 

In today’s environment of class separation and division, an individual voice may not be heard, especially if that voice does not belong to a billionaire.

For the everyday people of the non-CEO class to have their voice heard and valued, they are going to have to unite in some way or another. This means groups or masses of citizens with common interests must come together to even have the chance to be heard and to make a difference. This would not have to be a labor union, but there must be unity of some kind to make this happen. 

To me, labor unions are an obvious choice, if for no other reason than the groundwork and infrastructures are already laid. The value of the actual labor from the people who literally do the things to make society function, grow and allow us all the necessities and luxuries that we enjoy, should be powerful punctuation to these voices when they come together. The value of our collective labor is our collective power.

What other choices do we have? You could become a billionaire. Good luck with that. Voting is a great idea that was set up for this purpose of giving citizens a voice. But elections have now been so corrupted by money on an institutional level, that, in return for that dark campaign money, the voice of normal people has been muffled and even smothered out.

It is probably no coincidence that the decrease in union involvement and participation has corresponded with the rise of the CEO /billionaire class. Having money is great, but losing the value of your freedom of speech and your vote because our wealth is so unevenly distributed, this waters down the worker’s and everyday people’s voices. Both locally and nationally, the effects of campaign dollars are so extreme, they seem to be undermining the everyday citizen’s votes, your vote and democracy in general.

The current state of the country, and possibly the world, seems to be actually demanding that the masses of regular people and workers unite in solidarity to just have a relevant voice or vote. 

So, again, labor unions are an obvious medium at this point in time, with the advantage of an already existing head start in infrastructure, and even a platform, to consolidate and strengthen voices to correct our course back to working for the regular class of people. Most of us must work to survive, so it is a natural common ground where we can come together and be heard.

Join your union, support your local unions, organize your workplace, organize your industry, and go to and participate in your local union meetings, if for no other reason than to get your message, other messages and the group message out there and support and amplify free speech. Your labor unions are still a place where, without being a billionaire, your participation can count for something. And with the rest of us backing each other we can get our message out, promote fairness and gather the power to make the changes for the everyday people and the working class. 

Even if you are self-employed or don’t feel like you need a union at your workplace, can you really afford to miss out on the collective voice, power and, hopefully, the momentum it will take to possibly correct the current state we are in? 

It’s time to roll up your sleeves to join, support and participate in your local union or guild and make a difference.

Dan Soeby is with Teamsters Local 206.