I grew up in the 1980s in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, where Irish-American families long scorned by elites finally reached the middle class, thanks to the Transport Workers Union and other unions that fought for good wages, health benefits, and pensions.

I’m not speaking figuratively. The history of the labor movement includes pitched battles against hired strikebreakers, labor leaders getting thrown into jail, workers being hurt and even killed, all for demanding the right to improve and defend their livelihoods.

Now, a modern strain of tech-based elitism has emerged. It poses an existential threat to working families, including members of today’s incredibly diverse transit workforce, with men and women from Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, India, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and many other countries.

In a recent guest essay in the New York Times, two academics who have worked for Democratic politicians at the highest levels of government, argue that........

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