ANALYSIS: Unions Find New Leverage With Social Justice Protests

With a day of widespread walkouts and demonstrations that explicitly linked the Black Lives Matter and Fight for $15 movements, labor unions have begun to re-establish themselves as the preeminent voice of worker protest.

The July 20 “Strike for Black Lives” event idled tens of thousands of workers nationwide, according to most media reports—some for the entire day, others for the symbolically significant period of eight minutes and 46 seconds, in observance of the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

The event was organized by dozens of unions and other groups, including ...