Today we need to pause and reflect on the contributions that working men and women have made to the success of America. Yes, we need the bosses and the capital, but it would all be for nothing if it wasn’t for the workers. Labor provided the sweat and the muscle, from the farms to the factories. We built the cars, the machines, and the skyscrapers. Workers dug the tunnels and toiled in the mines. Built the bridges and the ships. Manufactured the goods and provided the services. From teachers to maids to cops and engineers, it is the working class that moves America.
Labor is NOT a commodity. We are human beings. We have been abused, exploited, and abandoned over the course of history. Yet we prevailed when we organized, when we stuck together, and when we unionized. We demanded a greater share of the wealth and created the middle class in America.
We commend the entrepreneurs and small business owners and the capitalists that provide the work opportunities but only those that treat their workers with respect. We scorn the corporations and the employers that take advantage, destroy the environment, corrupt the politicians with their unlimited wealth to dismantle the laws that protect workers’ rights and our safety in order to make not a fair, but an obscene profit.
We need to reconnect with our friends and our neighbors, and especially those less fortunate, recognizing that we, the working class, are in the same boat. The security of our families and future generations of working Americans depends on it. Think about it, everyday should be Labor Day.
