AFA President Named One of Ten Most Innovative People of the Last Ten Years
September 20, 2024 - Fast Company named our President Sara Nelson one of the ten most innovative people of the last ten years, joining national figures like Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Kahn, Issa Rae, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, and Ryan Reynolds.
“Through her work—both as the leader of her own union and as a vital, powerful communicator on television, at rallies, and on Capitol Hill—Nelson has been at the vanguard of a new moment of solidarity among workers (“an injury to one is injury to all, across race and industry,” she says). She’s rallied these workers around a clear narrative, “which is that there’s the corporate elite, and then there’s the working class.” Watch the Video >
The article closes with… “Instead of collaborating with companies to preserve so-called labor peace and seeking change within the political system, unions, thanks to Nelson’s influence, are wielding the power of the strike in a way that hasn’t been seen since the zenith of labor’s power in the mid-20th century. “Politics are not going to come to the working class,” Nelson says. “The working class has to set the agenda, and politics will come to us.”
This recognition represents a huge shift in the balance of power in our country. Workers are realizing the strength of collective action and the power of our Solidarity, uniting against the corporate elite who have claimed for too long that we are lucky to have our jobs.
As Sara always says, for fifty years management has told us we should feel lucky to have a job. From here forward we’ll have them know they should feel lucky to have our work.
This recognition would not have been possible without each of us recognizing the power that we have as workers acting together through our union. Let’s use this recognition as another tool to get the contracts we have earned!
