Senator Bernie Sanders. (photo: Medium)
04 September 17
abor
Day was established in 1894 by President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat,
as a concession to the labor movement days after he used federal troops
to crush a strike by railroad workers which resulted in 30 deaths and
some $80 million in property damages. Workers then, and workers now,
were fighting for decent wages and working conditions and the end of
human exploitation.
Today, at a time of massive income and wealth
inequality and an outrageous level of corporate greed, we must never
forget the struggles and ideals of those who came before us. We must
continue the fight for a government and an economy that works for all,
and not just the wealthy and powerful.
Labor Day is a time to remember that for hundreds of
years the trade union movement in our country has led the fight for
equal rights and economic and social justice. And it is a day to pledge
our continuing support to protect workers’ rights which have been under
fire for decades.
The reality is that over the past 40 years, the
wealthiest and most powerful people in this country have rigged the
economy against the American middle class, the working class and the
most vulnerable people. The result is that the very rich are getting
richer while most working families are struggling.
In America today, the typical male working full-time
is making about $2,100 less than he did 43 years ago, while millions of
women are working two or three jobs just to cobble together enough
income to pay the bills. Back in 1979, nearly 4 out of 10 private sector
workers had a defined benefit pension plan that guaranteed a secure
retirement after a lifetime of hard work. Today, only 13 percent do.
In 1980, CEOs made 30 times more than the average
worker. Today, chief executives of the largest corporations in America
make about 347 times as much as their typical employees.
Meanwhile, the wealthiest and most powerful people in
this country have never had it so good. The top 0.1 percent owns almost
as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.
Fifty-two percent of all new
income is going to the top 1 percent. One family, the Walton family of
Walmart — the worst union-busters of all — owns more wealth than the
bottom 130 million Americans.
As a result, people all over this country are asking the hard questions that need to be asked:
Why is it that, despite all of the incredible gains we
have made in technology and productivity, millions of Americans are
working longer hours for lower wages?
Why is it that we have the highest rate of childhood
poverty of any major industrialized country while we have seen a 10-fold
increase in the number of billionaires since the year 2000?
How does it happen that many of the new jobs being created today in America are part-time, low wage jobs?
Why is it that since 2001, over 60,000 factories have
shut down in America and millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs have
disappeared? Why are the new manufacturing jobs being created in this
country pay in some cases half of what manufacturing jobs used to pay?
Why are we in a race to the bottom with low wage countries like China, Mexico and Vietnam?
Why are we the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care for all or to provide paid family and medical leave?
Why have we lost our position as the best educated
country in the world and now find millions of people paying off
outrageously high student debts?
Why is our infrastructure — roads, bridges, airports,
levees, dams, water systems and wastewater plants, mass transit, schools
and housing — crumbling and in need of major repair?
The bottom line is that there are a number of reasons
as to why the middle class in this country continues to shrink, while
those on top are doing phenomenally well.
The most important being that
we increasingly have governments, at the national, state and local
levels, that are beholden to wealthy campaign contributors rather than
the needs of their constituents.
Our job is to bring our people together around a
progressive agenda that works for all, and not just the few. Our job is
to create an economy based on human needs, not the greed of the
billionaire class.
We must rebuild the American labor movement and make
it easier, not harder, for workers to join unions. Forty years ago, more
than a quarter of all workers belonged to a union. Today, that number
has gone down to just 11 percent and in the private sector it is now
less than 7 percent as Republican governors across the country have
signed anti-union legislation into law, drastically cutting labor
membership in this country.
It is not a coincidence that the decline of the
American middle class virtually mirrors the rapid decline in union
membership. As workers lose their seat at the negotiating table, the
share of national income going to middle class workers has gone down,
while the percentage of income going to the very wealthy has gone up.
The benefits of joining a union are clear. Union
workers earn 27 percent more, on average, than non-union workers. Over
76 percent of union workers have guaranteed defined benefit pension
plans, while only 16 percent of non-union workers do. More than 82
percent of workers in unions have paid sick leave, compared to just 62
percent of non-union workers.
In order to revitalize American democracy we must
overturn Citizens United, move to public funding of elections and end
voter suppression.
We must demand that the wealthy and large corporations begin paying their fair share of taxes.
We must break-up the large Wall Street financial banks and make sure that no institution in America is too big to fail.
We must raise the minimum wage to a living wage, $15
an hour, and end the unconscionable and inequitable pay gap that
currently exists between male and female workers.
We must re-write our disastrous trade policies and
make sure that trade agreements benefit workers and not just CEOs of
large corporations.
We must rebuild our crumbling infrastructure with a $1 trillion dollar investment and create up to 15 million good-paying jobs.
We must pass a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system and guarantee health care as a right, not a privilege.
We must make public colleges and universities tuition
free for working families so that everyone can get a higher education
regardless of income.
Today, on Labor Day, we must recommit ourselves to
bringing all working people together in the fight for a just and humane
world.
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