For Immediate Release
Monday, September 01, 2003
Labor Day 2003 Message from President McEntee
While there is some dispute over the birth of the first observance of Labor Day, no one disagrees that it was created to honor the workers of this country. Today, whether it's the eight-hour day, sick leave or workers' compensation, working families are better off than they were 100 years ago. As the bumper sticker says, "The Labor Movement: The People Who Brought You the Weekend."
Despite these gains, today there is a crisis in our country. Not only are workers losing power at work, but they are losing the work itself at an unprecedented rate.
While Labor Day was created to honor working men and women, these same workers are being dishonored under the leadership of this administration. This is the only administration to lose rather than create jobs in the last 70 years, the worst record since Herbert Hoover.
There are 9.4 million Americans are out of work more than 3 million people lost their jobs on President Bush's watch. This moved the unemployment rate to a nine-year high of 6.4 percent in June. And over 2.3 million workers have used exhausted their unemployment insurance.
On Labor Day this year, let us rededicate ourselves to America's workers. Let us protect America's jobs and create more jobs. Let us increase the strength of our unions. Let us fight for the rights of workers as we did over 100 years when we set aside the first Monday in September to celebrate the workers of America who have built this great country.
At AFSCME, we will all continue to work for a better future for working families. In that way, we will protect our jobs, our benefits and our workers. The bottom line is that we must make every day in this country a celebration of the American worker.
THE UNION DIFFERENCE:
- Union members earn 26 percent more than their nonunion counterparts.
- More than 75 percent of union workers have health benefits. Less than half of nonunion workers have health coverage.
- Nearly 70 percent of union workers have a pension. Only 14 percent of nonunion workers have one.
- The 10 states where unions are strongest have higher earnings, better health coverage, less crime, more civic participation, less poverty and better schools than the 10 states where union membership is lowest.
That is why more and more of America's workers want union jobs or want a union where they work. More than 42 million nonunion workers say they want to join a union.
Source: AFL-CIO
OTHER LABOR DAY RESOURCES:
- AFL-CIO Labor Day
- The History of Labor Day
- U.S. Census Facts for Features: Labor Day 2003
- How Unions Help All Workers — Economic Policy Institute, 2003
- AFSCME LaborLinks: Labor History and Culture
