Labor Day 2012 comes at a turning point in American history. At a time when the wealthiest have prospered beyond the wildest of dreams, the vast majority of working Americans struggle to make ends meet. Millions have seen their incomes flatten, their jobs outsourced, and their hopes for retirement security put on hold, if not quashed completely. At the same time, Wall Street and the politicians who conspire with them have worked overtime to destroy the ability of American workers to join unions and bargain collectively for better wages and benefits.
Across the country today, union members and our allies are pulling together to create a different future for our country. We are playing an active role in campaigns at every level of government that will determine whether America will continue on the perilous, amoral road of inequality or get back on track to expand the middle class and opportunity for all.
This is not a new role for the American labor movement. For more than a century, our members have stood up against tremendous odds to fight for values that all Americans cherish. We ended child labor and promoted the minimum wage. We closed sweatshops and struggled for unemployment insurance. We fought for sick leave and retirement security. We have built programs to expand the American Dream for all.
We have helped create insurance programs that benefit all Americans, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare. We have pushed legislation promoting civil and human rights at home, including the Voting Rights Act, the Fair Housing Law and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Union members have fought for education programs, from pre-school to college, because we knew that a broadly educated workforce is necessary to create a thriving middle class and a healthy democracy.
During the Republican National Convention this week, the cause of working people has been subjected to numerous attacks designed to undermine public support for unions and the role unions play in promoting an economy that works for all. On the opening night of the convention, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley accused President Obama of sacrificing American workers "to pacify the bullying union bosses he counts as political allies," when he stood up for union members in the manufacturing sector. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie denounced teacher unions while falsely claiming that unions oppose high standards and accountability.
The New York Times reports that the GOP platform "calls for numerous steps that could significantly weaken America's labor unions -- public-sector and private-sector ones -- and help speed organized labor's overall decline." The platform calls for a nationwide Right to Work for Less law and encourages all states to eliminate the right of public employees to engage in collective bargaining. The platform opposes the right of unions in the private sector to organize through majority sign-up, even though that has been the law of the land since the 1930s.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are promoting a radical agenda that would alter the right of American workers to have an effective voice on the job. Like Scott Walker in Wisconsin, they talk in code and say they "will make the hard decisions." What they really plan is an attack on unions and our efforts to expand opportunity for American workers. They betray the legacy of political leaders from both parties who understood the important role unions play in advancing the cause of the middle class and all Americans.
It is hard to imagine Mitt Romney speaking the words Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower used when he spoke at the first meeting of the combined AFL-CIO in 1955. "Workers want recognition as human beings and as individuals before everything else," President Eisenhower said. "Good wages, respectable working conditions, reasonable hours, protection of status and security; these constitute the necessary foundations on which you build to reach your higher aims."
It is hard to imagine Paul Ryan echoing Pres. John F. Kennedy, who extended the right of collective bargaining to the federal workforce because he knew the cause of freedom benefited when workers had a voice. "Those who would destroy or further limit the rights of organized labor - those who would cripple collective bargaining or prevent organizing of the unorganized - do a disservice to the cause of democracy," JFK said.
We must do more to insure that future Americans live in a country where their voices can be heard and their freedom is secure. This Labor Day, and throughout the crucial next two months, we must show that we are equal to the task. We must fight for the middle class, or see it continue to disappear. We must speak to our family and friends, neighbors and coworkers. We must imagine a world that is better than the one we are living in today, and we must fight to make it a reality. We need to be engaged and active in the struggle to preserve democracy and the American Dream.
Help remind America of all that union workers do by visiting LaborUnionsMadeMyDay.com to share your thoughts and spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. This interactive website features submissions from across the country and serves to remind our fellow citizens about the important work done by union members and how crucial a strong labor movement is for the working middle class. What have labor unions done for you today?
Follow Lee A. Saunders on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AFSCME
Compare G W Bush to B Obama. The focus should be on this: How long does it take for the policy advocacy of a U.S. President to take effect.
Lets say we allow Bush 7 years before we judge his jobs record. The number of non-farm jobs hit its peak in 2005. But it began to crash in 2008 during which year (in round numbers) we lost 4 million jobs.
Coincidentally that was approximately the same number of jobs lost in 2009, the year Obama took office. By 2010 the loss stopped and job creation began.
Question: Should the President’s jobs record judgment begin with the 8th year the President is in office; or should it be the first month? The first year. If you say first (equates to the start of the second year) Obama has won the argument.
If you look at Governor Romney’s Mass. record, there is no debate. Its dismal. Was it his fault? You answer that question.
On that HOLIDAY, require that every able bodied adult person, plus children 10 years or older, in the USA be required to work 12 hours scrubbing and mopping floors. Give 10 minutes unpaid off for lunch. Pay each 40 cents per hour (no overtime pay).But non-whites and women will get only 30 cents. No Social Security, No Medicare.Striking will be a felony. Set the temperature at 90 degrees fahenheit.
Those that fall on slippery floor and break back; have no Workers Compensation, no Medicaid so you have no remedy unless you can prove that it was not in any way partly your fault and pray that your employer can afford to pay the med bill after the law suit is won and lawyers paid.
After the 12 hours they are compelled to listen to a recorded speech by Ann Ryand followed by one of Sam Gomphers. Aftr a cold shower you are permitted to go out and get drunk if you have the strength.
Politicians just blame the workers and the unions. The wealthy should pay their fair share of the taxes and we wouldn't have these financial problems!
We'd be in the worst fiscal shape in the nation were it not for CA, IL, NY and NJ, the other traditional Dem/Union ruled states....
How will the people of OH, CA, IL et al feel when the bulk of their states' budgets don't go to Medicaid, infrastructure, education, police & fire et al, but must be used to pay for public sector retirements & health care?
Thank you.
More true today than ever - though I doubt Ike could get nominated by today's GOP. A shame too because unlike Romney, Ike would of course have mentioned troops, veterans and military families in accepting the nomination.