We have all watched what has been unfolding in our cities: the mass deployment of federal agents to terrorize immigrant communities and advance a white nationalist agenda. We have seen our neighbors and public school students kidnapped by ICE agents outside federal courthouses, mere blocks from our union headquarters. We have seen recorded images of deputized thugs killing American citizens for the crime of not following orders. We are saddened, appalled and angered. We have come to realize that the only “institution” on which we can truly depend to preserve a democracy that works for every one — not just the few — is ourselves: We the people, standing together, families and neighbors, keeping watch, bearing witness, and protecting one another.

These are the very actions labor unions have championed for 150 years. Solidarity with our brothers and sisters is familiar to us as UFT members. Union values are American values. Union members support one another, keep watch and aspire to the greatest common collective good. That is in our union blood, and it is why the labor movement should be on the front lines, organizing resistance to the enemies of American multiculturalism.

Renee Good was deeply involved with community groups advocating for immigrant rights and workers’ protections. The Minneapolis substitute teacher was shot dead by an ICE agent after uttering the words, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” Alex Pretti was a union nurse, a member of AFGE Local 3669. He worked in the intensive care unit of the Minneapolis VA Hospital, helping people in their hours of greatest need. His sister, Micayla Pretti, said all her brother “ever wanted was to help someone — anyone.” Helping a neighbor to her feet is exactly what Alex was doing when he was pushed to the ground and executed by masked U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in broad daylight on a Minneapolis street. Renee Good and Alex Pretti represent the very best of us. It is fitting that they have been memorialized by organized labor, and that the values they died for be defended by organized labor.

It was gratifying to see a large UFT turnout for Renee Good and her Minneapolis neighbors at the rally in Union Square on Jan. 23. It moved me deeply to march with UFT members as we sang Woody Guthrie’s “Gonna Roll the Union On,” with the lyrics revised as, “...and if ICE gets in our way, we’re gonna roll right over them.”

It was bittersweet but inspiring to see a broad-based labor turnout at the vigil for Alex Pretti at the Manhattan VA Hospital on Jan. 29. I stood among hundreds of NYSNA nurses who had left their own picket lines to memorialize their fallen brother, together with caregivers from 1199 SEIU, the UFT, and many other unions.

It reminded me that labor’s struggles are our nation’s struggles. Only a few years ago, we were all standing at our windows, banging on pots and clapping our hands in gratitude for the health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic. Now, we must turn that gratitude into action and honor the lives of Renee and Alex by refusing to be silent in the face of tyranny and by showing the world that an injury to one is truly an injury to all. That’s the union way. Gotta roll this union — gotta roll this democracy — on.