Bill O’Reilly talks about "The War on Christmas" and while that concept has been widely lambasted I’m here today to sound a different alarm---- that there is truly a War on Labor Day.
Every time a Right to Work (for less)ballot initiative cooked up and paid for by the richest corporations in the world ends up under consideration, those plutocratic wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing have declared war on labor day.
Every time members of Congress vote against the Employee Free Choice Act, they have declared War on Labor Day.
Every time lawmakers supportunfair trade dealsthat reward employers who ship jobs overseas to countries where workers have no real right to organize, those lawmaker have declared War on Labor Day.
Every time a story about the middle class squeeze is run in the corporate media and they fail to mention that union’s created the middle class and that unions are fighting to restore it-- well maybe that’s not a declaration of war but that’s giving comfort to the enemies of Labor Day.
And every time we let corporations exploit their workers and deny their right to unionize and we remain silent, we are complicit in the War on Labor Day.
We must remember the true "reason for the (Labor Day) season", to steal a turn of phrase from people concerned about the secularization of Christmas.
We have Labor Day because union activists, often immigrants, fought and died so that we could have the weekend, to end child labor, for the 8 hour work day (hey remember the 8 hr workday? If you were unionized you might get to leave work on time and then you could like go to the gym and see your family and stuff). Today unions are the solution to so many of the world’s problems and unions are developing new strategies for winning all the time.
So this Labor Day, as you eat the BBQ you bought from a unionized grocery store, that wasn’t processed by Smithfield Farms, or your union-picked grilled veggies, remember that we have this day off because someone, maybe your grandparents or great grandparents once stood down their boss, the cops and maybe even the National Guard. The least we can do now is stand-up to the Pinkertons of the 21st century.
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Take a gander at Bruce Raynor’s blog post from 2007 "Lets’ Put the Labor Back in Labor Day" for the DMIBlog.
This diary is part of the Take Back Labor Day blogswarm. Find others there.