Supreme Court Ruling Is an Outright Attack on the Fundamental Rights of Working People

In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond issued the following statement:

Today, the Supreme Court executed a devastating blow to the Voting Rights Act and an outright attack on the fundamental freedoms of working people. The decision strips Black and Latino voters in Louisiana of having a fair say in their elected representatives, and will be used to further hollow out Americans’ voting rights across the country.  

The Voting Rights Act came out of a triumph of organizing and activism, a victory the people of the civil rights movement—with labor standing shoulder to shoulder—fought and died for over decades. But from the moment it was signed into law, there has been a concerted, insidious effort to reverse that progress. Today, the justices rewarded that decades-long campaign to lock in the underrepresentation of Black, Latino, and Native American communities in our democracy and open the door for state legislatures to continue to weaken voting protections. 

Voting rights are workers' rights. When working people have a real voice at the ballot box, we can elect leaders who will protect our right to join a union, fight for fair wages, ensure safe workplaces, live free from discrimination and harassment, and retire in dignity. When politicians—backed by the Supreme Court—are able to undermine our voices, they can dismantle everything we’ve worked for and further consolidate power for the corporations, billionaires, and special interests at our expense. This ruling gives anti-worker and anti-democratic actors new tools to do so.

The AFL-CIO refuses to accept that future. We will keep fighting for legislative reforms, including on the state and federal level, to create a democracy where every worker’s voice matters just as much as the wealthy and well-connected. And we will mobilize on jobsites, at doors and in the streets from now until November to elect candidates who will stand up for working people and against these attacks on our freedoms.

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