From strikes to new union contracts, Labor Day's organizing roots are especially strong this year

[Omaha Steve]

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS
Updated 8:49 AM CDT, September 1, 2023

NEW YORK (AP) — Labor Day is right around the corner, along with the big sales and barbecues that come with it. But the activist roots of the holiday are especially visible this year as unions challenge how workers are treated — from Hollywood to the auto production lines of Detroit.

The early-September tribute to workers has been an official holiday for almost 130 years — but an emboldened labor movement has created an environment closer to the era from which Labor Day was born. Like the late 1800s, workers are facing rapid economic transformation — and a growing gap in pay between themselves and new billionaire leaders of industry, mirroring the stark inequalities seen more than a century ago.

“There’s a lot of historical rhyming between the period of the origins of Labor Day and today,” Todd Vachon, an assistant professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, told The Associated Press. “Then, they had the Carnegies and the Rockefellers. Today, we have the Musks and the Bezoses. ... It’s a similar period of transition and change and also of resistance — of working people wanting to have some kind of dignity.”

Between writers and actors on strike, contentious contract negotiations that led up to a new labor deal for 340,000 unionized UPS workers and active picket lines across multiple industries, the labor in Labor Day is again at the forefront of the holiday arguably more than it has been in recent memory.

FULL story: https://apnews.com/article/labor-day-history-unions-organized-cb4ef1bb135e6deebb29fb87a13b8824

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin' & Rec'n

[Laffy Kat]

2. My union authorized a strike for October and the members voted on it last week.

The vote results: 99% in favor of strike. Our contract expires the last day of September. We'll see what happens.

[jxla]

3. I'm surprised to see what this person's website says this about their labor background

Last edited Sun Sep 3, 2023, 08:02 PM - Edit history (1)

[blockquote

"My father was a labor organizer with the CIO. He was part of the UAW’s campaign to organize Ford Plants in 1937, where men and women were brutally assaulted for trying to form a union. My grandfather worked on the Rock Island Railroad, taking my father to hear Eugene Debs speak w

[/div

hen my dad was just a child.

When I was growing up, my parents told me “if you cross a picket line, don’t bother coming home.” My brother worked for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers and the imprint of support for Labor has stayed with us throughout our adult lives."

https://marianne2024.com/issues/empowered-labor/
Also https://marianne2024.com/issues/pandemic-policy/
All Issues https://marianne2024.com/issues/

Joe Biden is obviously the one to vote for, but I thought her labor (& other) policies might be of interest to some in this group.