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Labor Day

A Time For Bold Vision: Labor’s Call For Economic Justice

On this Labor Day, as the Trump administration systematically attacks workers and undercuts labor rights, it is not enough for the labor movement to oppose what is happening. While resistance is essential, we must also chart a path forward — one that clearly articulates what we stand for and the future we are building. A future where all workers — working people of all identities, backgrounds, education, abilities, size, expression and status — feel safety, security and solidarity from their union and labor movement. Local union members recently created an agenda called “Our Shared Vision for Workers’ Rights and Economic Justice” that is the result of listening to workers who understand firsthand what working people need to thrive.

‘Workers Over Billionaires’ Labor Day Events Climb To Nearly 600 Across US

Washington, D.C. — After gathering more than 2,400 people for an incredible virtual call on August 14 featuring multiple labor leaders, “Workers Over Billionaires” events scheduled for Labor Day (September 1) soared to 584 events and counting across the country. On September 1st, the May Day Strong Coalition will continue the movement they launched together on May 1st, standing in solidarity with all communities under attack and fighting for real wins for all people. Thousands of communities across the country are taking a stand on Labor Day. Workers will be in the streets, outside the offices of corporate executives, and at congressional offices. Together they will demand a country that puts workers over billionaires.

Portland Grocery Workers Strike Together

Over Labor Day weekend, 5,500 grocery workers in Portland, Oregon, went on strike across 38 stores—and two unions. A thousand workers at 10 New Seasons Markets, members of an independent union seeking a first contract, struck for one day on September 1, in their first union-wide strike. And 4,500 members of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 walked out of 28 Fred Meyer supermarket-department stores August 28 on a seven-day strike. This month they reached and ratified a tentative agreement. Though the two unions did not coordinate their strike plans—both chose Labor Day because it’s a big grocery shopping weekend—workers at New Seasons donated leftover food from their one-day strike to Fred Meyer picket lines

Thousands Flood New York City Streets For Palestine

New York City - On Labor Day, Sept. 2, day 331 of Israel’s genocide, thousands of people gathered at Union Square in New York City in an outpouring of rage against the U.S.-backed massacres of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Chanting: “Resistance is justified when people are occupied”, “There is only one solution, Intifada revolution” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine is almost Free,” they expressed support for the Palestinian people as the U.S. government, police, social media sites and university administrations are taking actions to suppress protests against the genocide. Neerden Kiswani, a Palestinian activist and founder of Within Our Lifetime (WOL), one of the main organizers of the event, described Israel’s horrific brutality.

Building A Labor Movement In The United States To Win Worker Rights

For Labor Day, Clearing the FOG speaks with Rand Wilson, a long time labor organizer who began his career with Tony Mazzocchi and the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Union and who has been involved in many campaigns to build worker power in the United States. Wilson speaks about the current challenges for workers, including the way contracts are negotiated, labor laws that prohibit strikes, antiquated union structure and union busting by employers. He comments on the call by UAW for a general strike on 2028 and he describes a new campaign, CHIPS Communities United, and what people can do to support workers where they live.

The Condition Of The American Working Class Today

On Labor Day this writer has summed up the condition of the American working class over the past year. This national election year it is perhaps useful to review not only the past year but what has happened since the last election in 2020. How has the American worker fared the past four years—in terms of wages, benefits, inflation and jobs? How have their unions, now a mere 10% of the labor force, also fared during the period of recovery since the deep Covid era recession of 2020, the uneven recovery of 2020-21 that followed, and the past thirty months of what has been a modest economic growth.

Hundreds Of Rideshare Drivers Form Tennessee Drivers’ Union

On Tuesday, August 20, hundreds of rideshare drivers voted to form the Tennessee Drivers’ Union and to strike on Friday, August 30 to address worsening working conditions at the Nashville International Airport. Workers are striking strategically on Labor Day weekend, as they recognize that it is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. These drivers represent 14 different nationalities and speak multiple languages. “We are many nations working for [a] common goal,” says the co-president of the Tennessee Drivers’ Union. “If we don’t come together as people striving for their rights then we will continue to suffer and [be] robbed by two giants, Uber and Lyft.”

Workers, Unchecked: The Case For Card Check This Labor Day

The process of union certification is a critical area of labor rights, acting as a precursor to collective bargaining. One method, card check, simplifies this process by allowing workers to express their desire for union representation through majority sign-up. Because it reduces opportunities for employer interference and expedites union certification, card check has come under significant fire from those who oppose unions. Card check is a quick and efficient way for workers to indicate whether they want to be represented by a union. Workers who desire a union simply sign authorization cards indicating their support.

Cleveland: A Message To The Community, ‘No New Jail!’

Cleveland, Ohio - The Cuyahoga County Jail Coalition was warmly received by participants and onlookers at Cleveland’s Labor Day parade Sept. 4, as it promoted its efforts to stop construction of a new county jail. With principal and interest to bondholders combined, a new jail could cost county taxpayers over $2 billion, making it the most expensive project in Cuyahoga County’s history. The Coalition banner, shown in the photo, called on county residents to “say no to 40 years of debt.” Every year in Cleveland, the 11th Congressional District Caucus holds its parade on Labor Day. For over a decade this Black community tradition has been joined by Greater Cleveland’s labor movement, which had at one time held a separate parade the same day.

Central American Migrants And US Labor History

Tech workers, warehouse employees and baristas have notched many victories in recent months at major U.S. companies long deemed long shots for unions, including Apple, Amazon and Starbucks. To me, these recent union wins recall another pivotal period in the U.S. labor movement several decades ago. But that one was led by migrants from Central America. I’ve been researching human rights and immigration from Central America since the 1980s. In today’s polarized debates over immigration, the substantial contributions that Central American immigrants have made to U.S. society over the past 30 years rarely come up.

State AGs Are Celebrating Labor Day By Trying To Cut Workers’ Wages

In recent media appearances and press releases, Republican Attorneys General have been talking a big game about inflation and kitchen table pocketbook issues. Over the coming weekend, these same officials will likely be wishing their constituents a happy Labor Day and boasting about their commitment to working families on social media.  Meanwhile, more than a dozen GOP AGs are actively seeking to use the courts to cut workers’ federal minimum wages and wage protections. This hypocrisy should be called out for what it is: an attack on working people. These workers should not be collateral damage in political games to score points against the Biden administration.

Labor Day 2021: Creeping Austerity Has Arrived

Today, September 6, 2021, Labor Day in the USA, brings nothing to celebrate for American workers. As the most recent Labor Department monthly job report a few days ago revealed, job recovery has hit a wall. After averaging 750,000 jobs over each of the preceding three months, from May to July, job recovery this past August fell by more than two-thirds, to only 235,000. The jobs numbers were particularly weak for job recovery in the service occupations, which were hit hard by Covid resurgence. Jobs in hotels, bars, and restaurants in late July-early August–i.e. the period covered by the latest government jobs reports–began contracting once again following three months of recovery May to mid-July. Moreover, due to the Covid delta variant intensifying during August, the numbers will likely worsen further through August and into September, given that only 53% of Americans are vaccinated.

The Labor Day Dreams Of Black Workers

As our second pandemic Labor Day approaches, Black worker leaders are determined to never again bear the brunt of a national crisis as they have under Covid-19. How can we make the recovery more equitable — and improve conditions for Black workers before the next crisis hits? We asked nine leading Black labor organizers and policy advocates for their views.

Labor Day Reflection: Time For Americans To Participate In Power

The Roman philosopher and statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero said: “Freedom is participation in power.”  By that standard Americans are not free.  We do not participate in power. We do not even have power over our own economic lives, our elected “representatives” ignore us and listen to the moneyed interests sending the United States in the wrong direction on issue after issue.  The American people know better, would govern better and need to participate in power. When you dispassionately review the reality of the U.S. economy, it is a depressing state of affairs that screams out for Americans to get up, stand up and shout: “we can do better than the political and economic elites.”

What Labor Day Means To My South Side And Black Union Family

By Dorian Warren for Chicago Sun Times - My grandparents were janitors in Chicago, the children of sharecroppers who fled the racist violence and oppression of the South for new opportunities in the North. They began their working lives in the 1940s when jobs did not have benefits like pensions and health care. They lived in public housing because black people could not move wherever they wanted. But my grandparents made a fateful decision one day to join the union. That single decision influenced the opportunities for all the subsequent generations in my family. My family’s union story is that of black American families who joined the middle class with good-paying jobs, benefits and better working conditions. My janitor grandparents were members of the Janitors’ Union, SEIU Local 1. The union ensured they had jobs that helped them save money and eventually buy a home on the South Side. The union ensured my grandparents could send the first person in our family to college – my mother. In the 1950s, only two avenues were available to smart, young black women like my mom. She could be a nurse or a teacher. She chose teaching and taught in public school for more than 40 years.
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