It took nearly 60 years for the American worker to establish and codify an eight-hour workday. What is widely observed today as a common practice, and presently given little extra thought, was a hard-fought and daunting challenge for laborers. Companies at the dawn of the 20th Century fiercely opposed the notion of worker rest or employee consideration.

We have weekends and we have holidays and we have vacations and we have 40-hour work weeks, not because corporations and management have ever sought employee appreciation, but because we – the working class – demanded that our lives and our families are worthy of dignity and respect.

Time moves by and memories fade, but the battles that workers fought before us should never lose their standing in American life. They were significant. They were imperative. They were collective and unified. Without the gumption and bravery of the original Unionists of the early 1900s, America, and the world, would be a much different, and worse off, place.

It is said every year on the first Monday in September, but it is nonetheless important. In a time where judges and politicians champion corporate greed and anti-worker laws, in a moment where Wall Street grows but the majority of families struggle, in a world where the sick go without and the rich go with abundance, Labor Day 2018 is a time to reflect on our past and commit to our future. It is a day to bolster the working person, the man and woman who do the heavy lifting in this country and around the globe.

Today is a day to celebrate the Union worker. Stand tall. Stand proud. Stand together. United we are Brothers and Sisters of the BMWED. Together we will carry the torch forward. Happy Labor Day. 

In Solidarity, 

Freddie N. Simpson
BMWED President