Labor Day 2016

As Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer, so Labor Day marks the beginning of autumn. When we celebrate Memorial Day, we celebrate the members of our armed forces who gave their lives in defense of our country.  When we celebrate Labor Day, we celebrate the men and women who literally built the country with their hands and skills. Imagine America without weekends (40 hour work week), or small children employed in industrial plants (child labor laws), or being paid 50 cents an hour (minimum wage). All of those parenthetical gains were brought to us by organized labor over the past century and more. Labor was also in the forefront of the 1960s civil rights movement and was a leading force in pushing for Medicare and Medicaid.

Labor has its enemies in corporate boardrooms and in their Rethuglican / New Confederate / Stupid Party. Over the past few decades, they've pushed relentlessly to negate the gains noted above and more. Blocking new minimum wage legislation, failing to enact the Employee Free Choice Act that would simplify the formation of unions, and refusing to consider equal pay for equal work legislation are all part of the right-wing's long standing campaign to tip the scales in favor of their corporate benefactors. Changing technology and outsourcing jobs abroad (a favorite of neo-fascist plutocrat Donald "Rump" Trump) has also hobbled organized labor's efforts to improve their members' lives. But organized labor is here to stay, whether it's in the form of Teamsters or steel workers or service workers or nurses or teachers, and the American middle class needs to honor it and protect it.