For many Americans, Labor Day must seem like a cruel joke. The opportunities for work have evaporated, and the 9.6 percent unemployment rate doesn’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t count the millions who have dropped out of the labor market, or who fill in as temporary, or even day laborers. Millions of people are hurting, and they don’t really need the day off.
So, on this official kickoff to the off-year elections, we know that incumbents have a lot of explaining to do, and we can expect them to say just about anything to save their jobs, even if it’s total bull. It’s not their jobs they should be thinking about, but how to restore jobs to a nation clobbered by a deep recession and years of economic mismanagement that has promoted a widening gulf between the rich and the poor, and the destruction of the middle class.
If that seems like a dire statement, well, consider the pronouncements of the captains of the congressional ship as we steer through these narrow economic straits. They want to balance the budget, to choke off any possibility of economic activity that could produce jobs. When what we need is stimulus – lots of it, from targeted tax breaks to public investment in infrastructure and green industries.
But on this, the 124th U.S. Labor Day holiday, let us at least pause to consider the importance of restoring labor to its central role in the vitality of our nation. Our economy has gotten dangerously out of whack because policy makers favored Wall Street bankers and risky financial investments over community development and job creation. It’s work that matters – good-paying, sustainable jobs.
Yes, there is hope, in the guise of Rep. Dan Lipinski’s (D-Ill.) bipartisan push for an aggressive manufacturing strategy to bring back jobs that make America a producer of goods, of genuine products. That’s how we can rebuild our economy, with smart technology and innovation. We can build and run green, reducing our dependency on fossil fuels even as we transform our economy.
That’s the rosy outlook, and I fully subscribe to it. But it is firmly grounded in a deep respect of and hope for Labor, and by Labor I mean employees of every stripe – blue collar, white collar, pink collar, green collar – who join together to fight for jobs, and training, and safety, your rights at work and a legally binding contract.
Unions, the people who brought you the Labor Day holiday (and the weekend) deserve to be celebrated on this day. We’re very proud to work for worker organizations here and abroad. Their No. 1 priority is jobs, making sure that workers have an opportunity to work. And to make sure that every job commands respect, and a living wage.
Employers who resist unionization are wasting millions of dollars for anti-union consultants when they could be sitting down with their employees and agreeing to mutually satisfactory pay, benefits and conditions of work. They would save millions of dollars that could be invested in their businesses, including their employees.
If we’re going to dig our way out of this economic hole, we must find a way to work together. That’s as good a Labor Day resolution as any. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get our house in order.
