Labor Day

Today (September 5)is Labor Day. It's always the first Monday in September and we are always reminded that it signals the end of summer, the beginning of school, and god forbid if I see a Christmas decoration or sale any time soon. Someone will find out (on a permanent basis) whether God is real or not. And I will probably become a part of the Prison Radio Project. (Listen to their reports if you get a chance. They are very insightful.)

Back to today: It is Labor Day. Key word being “Labor.” This is supposed to be a celebration of the working class.

We have it today because the capitalists that control the US government wanted to try to break up the international character of the working class. The internationalist working class celebrates its version of Labor Day on May 1^st. Always and every year. There are groups that have parades and protests in the USA on May 1^st, but it is largely ignored by the capitalist controlled media. They want to keep the US working class out of the international nature of the working class movement. It's the old “divide and conquer” routine. Blame the workers in Mexico for the loss of jobs in US manufacturing instead of blaming the capitalists for undermining workplace safety in Mexico and then moving their factories there. Same goes for Central and South America, China, Indonesia, Africa, you name it. Wherever the capitalists move the jobs so that they can rake in a maximum profit and screw people (and the planet) over.

This is also a war on unions. When unions are strong, the working class is strong. So you will always see the capitalists working to undermine unions and the right to organize any way they can. We need to remember what unions have won for all of us in the working class:

Like the 5 day work week? It used to be 6 days.

Like the 40 hour work week? It used to be a whole ton longer. It used to be 14 – 16 hours a day. 6 days a week.

Like overtime? That's time and a half for all work over 40 hours in a week or over 8 hours in an shift (if you have that in your union negotiated contract). I believe we received that during the Great Depression because of union activism.

Like minimum wage? (Yes, I know it stinks with how low it is and with all the profits the working class makes possible it should be over $20 an hour.) Capitalists would like to abolish it altogether and drive wages lower. (So wouldn't the Libertarians, but that is another article for another day.)

Like paid vacations? Guess who fought for that? No the big boss man up in corporate.

Who fought for health insurance, retirement benefits, paid vacations, paid sick days, personal days, time and a half on holidays? I'll give you some hints: 5 letters. 3 vowels. 2 consonants. The 2 consonants are the same.

And then there are those other things that we can be happy are gone: child labor for instance. And thank the heavens for that. Sad to say in other countries, particularly in the third world, this is no the case.

And there are those things that we need to improve on: Women make less than men even though they work just as hard and are just as capable. Over time they earn (on the average) $0,79 for every dollar men make. I've heard scary statistics that make it worse for Asian, Hispanic, and African American women. We need to fix this: equal pay for equal work.

We have come so far and the capitalists are fighting every day in the halls of power to undermine what we have won.

We demand:

-Equal Pay for Equal Work: Men, Women, & LGBTQ all earn the same pay.

-A 30 hour work week with no cut in pay. The modern workforce is more productive than ever. And we are producing too much anyways that is sitting on the shelf. Cuts in production will actually save costs rather than increase them.

-$15 NOW and index it to inflation. We can pay for this with cuts to the corporate class that make way too much money for the pittance of work that they actually do. A 50% pay cut for the CEO, board of Directors, Presidents, and Vice-Presidents would more than cover the costs of paying for this increase in the pay of the people that make the profits possible. And give everyone the same health care and retirement. (Read the previous sentence for how to pay for it.)

-The right to a union. Capitalists can band together. Why can't we?

-Automatic overtime pay for Sundays and Holidays.

What more would you want added to this list?

If I could summarize all this up in one word it could be any of the following.

Respect.

Fairness.

What would you add to this list?

Either the demands or the summary?