Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we'll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Show performers and stable hands at Medieval Times in Buena Park, California, ended their nine-month strike and returned to work Wednesday morning without a contract agreement, said the union representing the workers, the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA). The union made an “unconditional offer to return to work.”

“We felt that it was in our best interest to continue to try to work toward the collective bargaining agreement while returning to work,” said Erin Zapcic, who plays a queen at the Buena Park castle and serves as a union steward. “Our fight’s not over, and just because we’re going back to work doesn’t mean we’re not 1000% committed to getting a collective bargaining agreement that makes Medieval Times as safe and equitable as it possibly can be.”

It has been a monumental month for American labor.

UAW ratified powerful new contracts with each of America’s Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

SAG-AFTRA reached an industry-defining tentative agreement with the television and film industry studios.

The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 (UNITE HERE) reached its best tentative agreements ever with three Las Vegas titans: Caesars, MGM and Wynn.

And just last week, the Detroit Casino Council reached a terrific tentative agreement for thousands of casino workers in Michigan.

This is all incredible news with deals that will provide life-changing gains for America’s workers. And it was made possible by the unwavering strength of union members standing united for a better future, with all of our union family and people across the country standing in solidarity with them.

This moment is even bigger than these huge victories. This is about a labor movement. We’ve seen more than 300 strikes so far this year, involving more than 450,000 workers. Every industry. Every state.

Working people are reclaiming their power, taking on the companies that have given them the short end of the stick for too long:

• Look at WGA, who won an extraordinary deal for Hollywood writers with the major film and television companies.
   
• Look at OPEIU, IFPTE, and SEIU, who won a groundbreaking deal for health care workers with Kaiser Permanente.
   
• Look at the Teamsters, who won a historic deal for delivery and warehouse workers with UPS.
   
• Look at Starbucks stores all over this country. Two years ago, there were zero unions. Today, we have more than 360. And last week, the Red Cup Rebellion was the largest strike in Starbucks history.

And we’re not done. Workers are still holding the line and standing in solidarity as one labor movement so that every worker gets the fair contract they deserve. And we are growing our movement to bring in more working people, to elect more pro-labor leaders and to lead in the future of work on key issues like artificial intelligence (AI) and green energy jobs.

We can’t remember a moment when our movement had this kind of momentum. This is the story of how workers win.

So this Thanksgiving, we couldn’t be more grateful for workers and activists across the country and for every single person like you who has joined the fight. It truly is better in a union. THANK YOU.