Workers scored two huge victories this month: The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to their basic union rights and the California Legislature adopted a $15 minimum wage for all workers. As the old saying goes, “sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are good.”

In Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, the landmark challenge to workers’ rights argued before the Supreme Court in January, workers were lucky. Funded by an army of ultra conservative, anti-worker think tanks, the Friedrichs case was shepherded from the trial court level to the Supreme Court — a kind of legal smart bomb designed to harm workers. Then the death of conservative jurist Antonin Scalia deadlocked the Supreme Court at 4-4, preserving workers’ ability to fight back against well-funded attacks at the bargaining table and the polls.

In the Fight for $15, on the other hand, workers were amazing. Several years ago, our union SEIU Local 721, decided to launch the Fight for $15 in L.A. Even though most of our members make more than $15 an hour, we took up the cause of fast food and other low wage workers. We were attacked by everyone from right wing foundations to corporate think tanks and even abandoned by some of our allies. But we stayed strong. We refuted the bogus studies. We organized. We hit the streets over and over and over.

And then we won in L.A. City. We won in L.A. County. And our victories lit a fuse that exploded in a statewide victory. At press time, Governor Brown is pledging to sign a $15 wage for every worker in California. You, the members of SEIU 721, made history!

But make no mistake the hyper-wealthy anti-worker special interests behind Friedrichs won’t take this lying down. The Koch Brothers are funneling millions into the presidential race to capture the White House and name Scalia’s replacement.

But I am also confident we will prevail. From the bargaining table to the ballot, we have the power to build a better future — not because we’re lucky, but because we’re good!

Bob Schoonover, President