President Simpson's Labor Day Message Published: Aug 30 2019 11:47AM
It is a tumultuous time for Labor. The rich and powerful are seizing on a favorable playing field, where federal labor boards, state and local governments, and courts and judges at all levels are in the pockets of “Big Business” and the corporate elite.
Public school teachers were among the first to fall within the bullseye of these greed mongers. Imagine targeting public school teachers as the ire of your greed – yet here we are in America today. But the teachers were not cowardly. They fought back. Strikes and picket actions in nine states led to victories in seven. Public support fell squarely behind the teachers. Politicians, funded and deployed by wealthy special interest, fought back, but eventually relented. The labor actions by educators were largely a success.
More labor fights are coming. Corporations and the business class does not relent. History has shown us that. But the battles of the past are also the bellwethers of the future. Workers enjoy what we have today because of the fights – and VICTORIES – of yesteryear.
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 2019 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,
