What Unions Do
By 
Unlike left Twitter that had never thought about railroad unions for two seconds before Biden stopped them from striking, I tend to not judge unions I don’t really know about by my personal political predilections. So I have no real thoughts about this anti-union Times article about the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council intervening in transforming hotels into affordable housing in New York by saying it is violating their contract. The HGTC is close to Eric Adams and is using that power.
The one thing I will say here is that unions are not here to push your revolution. They are not here to push your current political priorities. They are not here to promote Your Good Cause. They are here for one reason and they state it right out in this article:
“While we certainly support the vision of finding shelters and supportive housing for the people that need it,” Mr. Maroko said, “our first, second and third priority is our members.”
This is what actual worker power is. You can disagree with the HGTC if you want. I probably do myself. But this is what worker power is. It’s workers collectively banding together for what THEY want, not what YOU want.