After he unveiled a comprehensive plan to double union membership and strengthen labor rights, Sen. Bernie Sanders said during an AFL-CIO event in Iowa on Wednesday that it is time for America's workers to win the class war against corporate elites.

"If there is going to be class warfare in this country," said Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, "it's time that the working class of this country won that war."

Sanders explained that, over the past several decades, big corporations and their allies in government have been waging class war against workers, gutting their right to organize and bargain for better wages and working conditions.

"For 45 years there has been a war in this country waged by the corporate elite against the working class of America," said Sanders. "And the truth of the matter—not talked about in Congress, not talked about in the media—is that as a result of that war against the working class by the corporate elite, what we have seen is the decimation of working families all across this country, while the wealthiest people and largest corporations have done phenomenally well."

Sanders said rebuilding the American trade union movement is essential to fighting soaring inequality in the United States and securing economic justice for all.

"We must come together and stand up for the working families of this country," Sanders said, "and finally create an economy and a government that works for all of us, not just the one percent."

Watch the full speech: