On Labor Day, we celebrate our power – and pledge to build it.
On Labor Day, we celebrate the power of workers to form unions, stand in solidarity, and together, improve our lives. Throughout history, the labor movement has used that power to make our workplaces safer, our economy fairer, and our democracy stronger.
But today, greedy billionaires are rolling back our workplace safety, trying to make it tougher to form unions, and attacking public service workers’ collective bargaining rights. Anti-worker politicians are slashing funding for public services, threatening lifelines like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, and inexplicably destroying student loan forgiveness. All this, while these billionaires are raking in massive new tax breaks.
There’s no question, the challenges we face at this moment are great. But so too is our power. Worker power has changed the course of American history time and time again – bringing children out of coal mines and into classrooms, achieving 8-hour workdays instead of 16-hour shifts, and in places like Memphis, securing dignity for sanitation workers instead of abysmal wages and deadly working conditions.
This Labor Day, let’s take pride in our past – and pledge to fight for our future. A future where hard work gets the respect it deserves. A future where working families can afford a decent life. A future where workers’ voices are heard at the bargaining table, the ballot box, and in the halls of government.
That’s the future AFSCME members are fighting for through our Get Organized campaign. Across our country, nurses and library workers, bus drivers and sanitation workers, corrections officers, child care providers – public service workers across every sector – are taking action and growing our power.
We are signing up more members. We are organizing more workplaces. We are training more activists. We are mobilizing to hold anti-worker politicians accountable. And we won’t back down.
Happy Labor Day, AFSCME family. It’s an honor to be in this fight with you.