Friday, September 04, 2009

Everyone Should Honor the Labor Movement

I'm sure that most people are looking forward to the extended holiday weekend. The truth is that if not for the labor movement in America, not only would we not have the extra day off but we wouldn't even have a weekend in the first place. Like many of the other achievements of labor, as a society we clearly take it all for granted now.

Here are just a handful of examples that come to my mind: The Eight Hour Workday, The Weekend, Child Labor Laws
Basic Workplace Safety Laws, Basic Benefits Like Vacation time, Paid Sick Days and Health Insurance

Some have chosen to forget what the labor movement won for all of us through blood, sweat, tears, and even death. Let's face it, when have the corporate elites ever given workers anything that they didn't have to fight for? Although they are a favorite target of the right-wing, there are many things that all of us simply wouldn't enjoy today without labor fighting those battles of the past. This weekend we should all honor those sacrifices of the past and think about how we can create a better working environment for the future.

1 comment:

Dan said...

Too bad unions have not grown with the times.
Unions, in the early movements, were a service. Nowdays, it is all about the money. You have large amount of union member's money going for executive salaries and benefits, political activities and very little goes back to the individual worker.