As we fire up the barbecues and ready for our labor day celebrations, I'd like everyone to stop for a moment and think about another reason for honoring labor - how it creates community through sacrifice.
In the wake of hurricane Katrina and the failure of the New Orleans levees and pumps, hundreds of thousand of our fellow Americans have faced disaster of epic proportions.
There are people in dire need of those things all of us need--water, food, clothing, shelter and medicine. It is the labor of other ordinary Americans that is filling the void. Whether it is the preparation of food in Baton Rouge churches, or volunteers from the NYPD piling into police cars and making the long trip to New Orleans. It is the volunteers of the Red Cross and the Salvation Army and neighbors rescuing neighbors with boats. It is the families in Houston adopting evacuees.
It is the labor and sacrifice of these individuals big and small, that is helping to improve the survival and conditions for all of those affected.
That, as much as anything, has always been the function of labor. Through shared sacrifice and effort the American Labor force continues to lift the prospects of all Americans. Whether it is reaching out to the under-compensated sectors of the work force to set the standards across all workplaces, or the determination to take the hit for everyone by striking.
It is the unity of that determination, even in the face of continued pressure from big business, the abandonment of pension plans, or the splitting of the national labor movement. It is that unity--that shared effort--that is the strength of America. So, take a moment today, to say thank you to American Labor, and then go fire up those coals.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
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