It’s an honor to be in Boston for the Larger Boston Labor Council’s first-ever Labor Day parade, which is a lot greater than only a celebration: it’s a possibility for working individuals to indicate the ability that we’ve got once we come collectively.
Labor Day isn’t only a break day work or one to take pleasure in with our households, it’s a name to motion. It’s a reminder of the sacrifices staff earlier than us made, and a push to defend what we’ve got and to struggle for extra – extra members, extra engaged staff, extra management over our personal lives, and extra energy over the society that we assist construct and preserve.
It’s simple to take what we’ve got with no consideration – most of us weren’t round throughout the hard-fought battles for the rights we take pleasure in right now, just like the weekend, the 8-hour-day, honest wages, security protocols, and a lot extra. This sadly implies that many people haven’t flexed our preventing muscle tissues for some time, outdoors of contract negotiations and protection of our collective bargaining agreements. However because the Normal President of the Worldwide Union of Painters and Allied Trades, I’ve an obligation to our 140,000 members – together with the almost 5,000 members in District Councils 11 and 35 in New England – to be sincere in regards to the issues we’re dealing with, each on the job and off. And I can let you know proper now that the established order is now not sufficient.
Proper now, the gulf between the wealthy and the poor is the most important it’s ever been, and dealing individuals wrestle to get by. As an alternative of specializing in the very actual points affecting staff – joblessness, inflation, stagnant wages, healthcare and housing prices, loneliness, and division – we’ve got a president who has invoked the Dwelling Rule Act in an effort to ship the Nationwide Guard into Washington, D.C., and an opposition get together that appears tired of attempting to cease political stunts like these. For essentially the most half, working individuals lack champions in both get together in D.C. We have to arise for ourselves and for one another.
Nevertheless it’s not simply our political system. Individuals don’t have a lot of a say within the place they spend nearly all of their time, both: the office. Fewer than 10% of staff on this nation are members of unions, and that quantity continues to drop as the present administration spends our tax {dollars} hammering federal staff. However our motion has the very best approval ranking because the Sixties, with 7 out of 10 Individuals having a positive view of unions. It is smart – with out union rights, staff are on the whim of their boss relating to wages, advantages, and dealing circumstances. Most individuals need a steady, well-paying job that they’ll rely on, with out fearing retribution resulting from their race, gender, faith, age, or the rest that may be – and is – used to discriminate towards staff. However at a time when staff want unions greater than ever, our motion is struggling to satisfy the second. A part of our drawback is that we’re not coming collectively the best way we must always.
Too typically, staff settle for the hand we’re dealt, whether or not it’s resulting from worry, complacency, or the sensation that nothing will ever change. Unions increase expectations for staff everywhere in the nation, however they’re not static organizations. If we’re going to maintain preventing for working individuals – and develop our membership and construct extra energy whereas we’re at it – we want our members and all working individuals to hitch us of their union halls and within the streets. The unhappy reality of the matter is that staff simply don’t have sufficient energy proper now. However on the IUPAT and throughout organized labor, together with our federation, the AFL-CIO, we’re working laborious to alter that. We’re speaking to our members, we’re defending non-union staff, and we’re working to alter this nation. Nevertheless it’s going to take all of us – the organized and the yet-to-be organized – to face up for our rights, on the job and elsewhere.
Labor Day is about our historical past as a labor motion – remembering the entire staff we’ve misplaced within the struggle for respect, dignity, security, and a voice on the job. Nevertheless it’s additionally about right now and day-after-day after – what are our unions, our members, and each different working individual prepared to do to win the society we deserve? I do know I’ll be out within the streets this Labor Day – and past – and I hope to see you there.
Jimmy Williams Jr. is common president of the Worldwide Union of Painters and Allied Trades
