Celebrate Labor Day by fighting for workers

Labor Day became an official U.S. holiday in 1894 to honor the American labor movement and the many contributions of laborers to our country. It's time to live up to that promise.

Source: Getty Images.

Labor Day is a day to honor laborers and renew our commitment to them as a country. One day cannot undo the indignities and harm laborers, especially the underpaid and undervalued, have experienced. We don’t have to look back in our history to see it. It is now. The pandemic, skyrocketing energy and food prices, and the threat of a recession hit those workers with the least, the hardest.

Workers have borne the brunt of the pandemic

Within weeks in March 2020, workers lost their jobs by the millions. Many waited weeks, sometimes months, to receive their jobless benefits. And those who kept their jobs or were called back were our frontline in Covid. These workers often did not receive protective equipment. They interacted with customers who refused to take basic precautions, and they were caught up in a political firestorm. It cost many.

Today, remember the workers at the packing plants who lost their lives to Covid due to unsafe working conditions so that we could get cheap hamburgers and hotdogs.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost

More workers at the country’s top five meatpacking companies were sickened and died of the coronavirus than had been previously estimated, an investigation by the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis has found

wapo.stCovid cases and deaths grossly underestimated among meatpackers, House investigation findsThe coronavirus infected 59,000 workers at the country’s top meatpacking companies and killed more than 250, lawmakers found.

Remember the nurses who cared for dying patients before we understood the virus and continue to do so in wave after wave of Covid. Initially, our health care workers were celebrated as heroes, but that ended long ago. Their service to us continues.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost

Podcast: An ICU nurse confronts Year 3 of the pandemic

wapo.stAn ICU nurse confronts Year 3 of the pandemicAs we enter Year 3 of the pandemic, we check back in with ICU nurse Jessica Montanaro, whom we first met in 2021. Now sick with covid and facing a ticking clock on her return to work, she reflects on the past year and the struggles of her profession.

Do not blame workers for inflation

Time and again during the crisis, workers have been blamed for our economic problems, everything from the labor shortage to the high inflation to poor customer service on our flights, meals out, and shopping trips.

Ending jobless benefits early in the summer of 2021 to “solve” the labor shortages was a low point in policymaking. Seeing the White House not even use its bully pulpit to call out the Republican Governors as they cut off benefits was crushing. It’s not the only time the donor class and Big Business lobby won out over workers, but it was hard. Moreover, it was clear the cruelty wouldn’t solve the labor shortage. I didn’t.

Concern that something is holding back U.S. workers from taking jobs along with anecdotes from employers having trouble hiring has accelerated a trend among state governors to end federal enhancements to jobless benefits this month — three months earlier than Congress intended. The goal is to get people off government benefits and back to work. It’s doubtful this policy change alone will be enough to meet employers’ hiring needs.

That’s from my Bloomberg Opinion piece on June 1, 2021. Over a year ago!

Julia Kirt @JuliaKirt

“As a country, we have an opportunity to achieve a stronger, more equitable labor market than before the pandemic.” #economy #jobs #unemployment

bloomberg.comHow to Get the Unemployed Back to WorkEnding federal enhancements to jobless benefits will not be enough to meet employers’ hiring needs.

Our workers deserve more than a holiday

It is easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to focus on the defeats. Everyone one of us owes it to workers to fight for them.

The most inspirational book I read during the pandemic is a biography of Frances Perkins. She was the key driver behind the New Deal and many of the worker protections we have today. Perkins knew the new programs and laws were flawed and incomplete. And she kept fighting. Here’s my long thread on the book.

Claudia Sahm @Claudia_Sahm

unemployment insurance is the core of the US social safety net (such as it is) and our primary automatic stabilizer ... created in the Great Depression, under leadership by Frances Perkins. going to read more about her this week, she’d be crushed today too.

Much of those efforts for workers remain unfinished. True to our country, many programs like unemployment insurance and Social Security did not, and do not still, extend equally to people of color, immigrants, farm laborers, and domestic workers. We must do more. We must keep fighting for better.

Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher @LorenaSGonzalez

Statement by President Biden in Support of California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act ❤️❤️❤️ Be still my heart. My President just endorsed the ⁦@UFWupdates⁩ #AB2183. Time to sign the bill.

whitehouse.govStatement by President Biden in Support of California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act - The White HouseI strongly support California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act (AB 2183), which will give California’s agricultural workers greater

But words are easy. The true test is action. The White House, Congress, and the Fed face many decisions now, ones that will affect millions of workers as we navigate out of the crisis. We must preserve the gains for low-wage workers, often in minoritized groups, even as we get inflation back down. Workers matter.

William E. Spriggs @WSpriggs

This is a warning sign to the @federalreserve that the labor market is showing slack with Black workers, who are the first to show it. The Fed does not control the current source of inflation, nor does it control the pace at which the labor market deteriorates.

Wrapping up

For many, Labor Day has become a time to fire up the grill, spend time with family and friends, and say goodbye to summer. These celebrations are important. Let’s remember the day has always been intended to celebrate workers—all of them, especially those who today are still running the checkouts at the grocery, caring for patients at the hospital, and stocking the Amazon warehouses.

Thank you to everyone fighting for workers. Thank you to workers.

Melissa Boteach @mboteach

Thank you unions for Labor Day - and pretty much every other protection we have on the job!