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Labor Day

Thousands Flood New York City Streets For Palestine

September 4, 2024 Brenda Ryan, Workers' World. , , , , ,
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

September 2, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , ,
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

September 2, 2024 Jack Rasmus, LA Progressive. , , , , , , ,
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

September 2, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , , ,
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

August 27, 2024 Hayley Brown and Sylvia Allegretto, Center for Economic and Policy Research. , , , ,
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!’

September 7, 2023 Martha Grevatt, Workers' World. , , ,
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

September 4, 2022 Elizabeth Oglesby, Consortium News. , , ,
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

September 4, 2022 Megan Uzzell and Joann Kintz, In These Times. , , ,
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

September 6, 2021 Jack Rasmus. , ,
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

September 4, 2021 Marc Bayard, Sarah Anderson, And Rebekah Entralgo, Inequality.org. , , ,
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

September 2, 2018 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance , ,
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

September 4, 2017 Dorian Warren, www.chicago.suntimes.com , ,
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.

Labor Day: Lots Of Worker Victories This Summer

September 5, 2016 Michael Arria, www.alternet.org , ,
By Michael Arria for AlterNet. Labor Day is regarded as "the unofficial end of summer" for many Americans, a time for one last cookout party and back-to-school discounts. Its history is all but forgotten but it remains crucial. The holiday was signed into law by President Grover Cleveland in 1894, days after members of the United States Army and the United States Marshall Service had killed 30 workers during the Pullman Strike. The legislation was something of an attempt to win hearts and minds: unions were justifiably skeptical of the government and the holiday was seen as a way to win some support. May 1st was floated out, but people already celebrated International Workers' Day on that day, commemorating the workers killed during the Haymarket Affair. Cleveland thought celebrating Labor Day on May 1st would encourage more protests, strikes and riots. The first Monday of September was selected to avoid further unrest. This Labor Day is a particularly great opportunity to remember the holiday's history as 2016 has featured some major victories for workers.

Newsletter: Labor Day Time To Build Worker Power

September 4, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. Private-sector workers who are members of a union have fallen from 1 in 3 workers in the 1950s to about 1 in 20 today. Politics is about power and the loss of organized worker power has meant a loss in political power for all workers and a loss of wealth, income and benefits. In recent years, there have been strong signs that labor is getting more organized and militant in fighting for worker rights. They have linked worker issues to other issues, e.g. racial injustice, climate change and creating stronger communities; and are showing signs of resurrection. Recent years have seen aggressive attacks against workers: pension funds are raided, health benefits are cut or ended, the right to collective bargaining is destroyed and social services are cut. This is dramatic and needs to be reversed.

Newsletter: Economy Of The Future-Economic Democracy

September 5, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance - This Labor Day weekend rather than looking at the history and current struggles of workers, we look to the future and imagine what will work be like in 2025 or 2050. What will the overall economy look like? What is our vision for an economy that works for the people? There are some major trends that indicate we are in the midst of a radical transformation of what work means and how people will have income. There will never be enough jobs in the future so we need a new way to ensure people have money on which to live and to keep the economy going. It is time to figure out how to provide people with a basic income where everyone receives a single basic income to provide for a comfortable living whether they work or not. To create wealth among workers, worker ownership through worker cooperatives or worker self-directed enterprises need to be encouraged. It takes roots to weather a storm, and the storm is here.
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