Things are looking up for the US labor movement these days. The ongoing organizing wave at Starbucks and the shocking victory at the Amazon JFK8 fulfillment center have garnered the most headlines, but it goes far beyond that. We can point to organizing among an ever-growing number of media organizations both old and new, tech and gaming workers, higher education workers (both graduate and undergraduate), retail workers at REI, congressional workers in Washington, and many more.

In April, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) took note of the trend, issuing a press release noting that the number of organizing petitions filed between October 2021 and March 2022 was up 57 percent compared to the year before. NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo described it as “a surge in labor activity nationwide.”

Beyond the numbers, the people doing the organizing give reason for optimism. The current uptick is being led by a new generation of workers who reflect the reality of today’s working class. They are young, multiracial, of many national origins and gender identities, college-educated and not, tattooed and pierced and not.