Labor Day 2007 - 125 Long, Eventful Years

Nearly 6000 Americans were killed last year - on the job. Yes. As bad as that figure is, it would be a lot worse if there was no labor movement.

Here's what AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said about our workplace today:

Our workplaces should be getting safer, not more dangerous. Yet six years of Bush Administration neglect and failure of workplace health and safety have put millions of workers at increased danger. It's clear that a change in direction and leadership is needed to protect workers on the job and to improve their lives.

While some groups of workers saw improvements, in 2005 job deaths increased among Latinos, Blacks, children, immigrants and agriculture workers. Sadly, but not surprisingly, these numbers confirm that under the Bush Administration, workers at the bottom of the economic ladder are paying a very heavy price.

Looking back in our history, do you honestly think a benevolent industry leader proposed the 5 day work week? Did you know people were killed by police in an effort to prevent it? How about child labor laws: do you think legislators generously created those laws to correct the brutal treatment of children in our factories? It was through the perseverance of the labor movement that forced that legislation on Congress.

So many of the things that are decent and fair in today's workplace were the product of strikes, demonstrations, beatings, and murder by the forces of law and order, as our industrial and legislative leaders stood by. If they did not obstruct, they did little of nothing to improve the lives of the people working for them. Next time you go to work, think about the sacrifice of many generations of the labor movement that allowed you a safe, somewhat fair, workplace with (somewhat) decent hours and wages.

There's still a ways to go for fairness in the workplace, and the offer of hope for a living wage and a decent middle class life. You certainly know that. Just remember those who got you where you are today.

Happy Labor Day, 2007.

Extra credit:

Don't be fooled by the latest foolery of the boy President. Read this, briefly excerpted below.

Seven Years in Hell

On Body Counts, Dead Zones, and an Empire of Stupidity

By Tom Engelhardt

(referring to the President's recent VFW speech)

"In its own strange way, Bush's speech was an admission of defeat. Somehow, Vietnam, the American nightmare, had finally bested the man who spent his youth avoiding it and his presidency evading it. The President had finally mounted the tiger you are always advised not to ride and had officially entered the dead zone, where the bodies pile high and victory never appears, taking the rest of the country with him."

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