by James Parks, Sep 4, 2007

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney joins the Tri-State Labor Day Parade Committee on a float in Philadelphia’s Labor Day parade.
Members of the Boy Scouts salute the colors in Tampa, Fla.
Postal Workers in Philadelphia prepare for the parade.
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson throws out the first pitch at the Toledo (Ohio) Mud Hens baseball game.
Communications Workers of America are ready to march in Philadelphia’s parade.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka addresses a rally in Tampa.

Across the country, workers celebrated Labor Day with a blend of picnics, parades and politics. In addition to celebrating the working men and women who built and maintain America, this year, working families celebrated a year that saw workers play a major role in electing a new Congress, the passage of the first increase in the minimum wage in a decade and majority congressional support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

We reported that the AFL-CIO on Labor Day launched a massive national drive to fix our broken health care system as new figures from the federal government show there are 2.2 million more Americans, including children, without health care coverage—a record 47 million with no coverage.

And you could see the enthusiasm and determination of workers to win universal health care around the country this past weekend. Labor Day is the traditional launch of the political campaign season and with the all-important 2008 elections approaching, workers used the Labor Day weekend to send a message to candidates that they want health care and other working families issues addressed in this campaign. The United Steelworkers and the Mine Workers used the Labor Day weekend to endorse former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) for president. Read the full story here.

But it was health care that was on most workers’ minds. Many of the picnics and parades used stickers and placards with “In America, No One Should Go Without Health Care” and “Employee Free Choice Act Now.”

Click here to sign a petition for quality, affordable health care and here to visit the AFL-CIO health care website.

In Philadelphia, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the union movement is going all out for a comprehensive health care plan:

This year, we’re not only putting together the biggest grassroots political campaign in our history, we’re putting the full force of 10 million union members and 3 million retirees behind a new campaign to win high-quality health care for every person in America by 2009.

We’re stepping out front because we believe that in America nobody should have to fear the consequences of getting sick or having an accident.

Our message to America this Labor Day is a promise: We brought you public schools. We brought you the weekend and, by God, we’re going to bring you health care!

In a Labor Day message, New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech and Secretary-Treasurer Laurel Brennan said America’s failure to adopt a national and health care plan for all:

…dramatically undermines our nation’s ability to maintain a healthy economy. Instead of rewarding union contractors and responsible employers for contributing to their workers’ health care, our system places them at a disadvantage as they are faced with the reality of paying premiums inflated by the cost of providing care for the uninsured.

In Phoenix, Arizona AFL-CIO Executive Director Rebekah Friend said health care is the main issue on working people’s minds:

It’s become more and more of an issue for us when we’re going to the bargaining table for our contracts. Health care is the number one issue and the rising costs associated with it.

We are going to make it (health care) a standard for the candidates when we go to endorse them. When we go to talk to candidates to find out where they stand on health care on every level, from school boards on up.

More than 4,000 union members attended a statewide rally in Birmingham, Ala., where Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) pledged to support a comprehensive health care plan.

D. Stewart Burkhalter, president of the Alabama AFL-CIO, told the crowd:

There’s something wrong when we’re the wealthiest country in the (world) and so many of our people don’t have health insurance. If we can spend $3 billion a week in Iraq, for a war we shouldn’t be in to start with, surely we can provide 47 million people with national health care coverage.

Click here to see a local video news report from the Alabama rally.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), in his Labor Day statement, pledged the new Congress will continue to put working families first when it returns to Capitol Hill after the Labor Day recess.

…we cannot forget that so many workers in the world’s wealthiest nation continue to struggle. New Census data show that while wages have declined, the number of Americans without health insurance has increased….

When Congress returns after Labor Day, Democrats will continue fighting for America’s workers and to take this country in a new direction.

In Tampa, Fla., AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told a rally workers can restore the “grand principle that ours is a nation for all the people, all of the time.”

We can have it all if we refuse to take a rest and begin now this Labor Day to finish what we started last year.

We can take back control of our government and take back control of our country and take back control of our lives if we pledge to work harder than ever to elect men and women at every level of government who will champion our working families agenda.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson, who threw out the first pitch—it was a fastball strike—at a Toledo (Ohio) Mud Hens AAA Minor League baseball game, earlier in the day, told a rally that workers are:

…sick and tired of living on a treadmill—running as fast we can and still falling behind.

We see what’s going on and we’re not going to keep quiet. We’re going to join together and stand up for what we know is fair and right.

But, just as speeches are a Labor Day tradition, so are food and fun. So here’s what some other workers did across the country to celebrate Labor Day:

• Workers as far away as the U.S. territory of Guam celebrated this Labor Day. GFT,Guam’s local union, made free soda floats for everyone at the Labor Day picnic on the beach. The union also offered a free raffle ticket for an MP3 player to any union member who signed up a new member on the spot.
• Union leaders across the country wrote opinion pieces for their local newspaper about the importance of Labor Day.
• In the Boston area, members of Electrical Workers Local 2222 who work for Verizon held up banners on two busy highway overpasses, saying “Enjoy your holiday weekend—made possible by organized labor!” With the standard of living for all working families under attack and union membership in decline, Local 2222 members decided to reach out to remind the public that workers make and defend job benefits and protections by joining unions.
• In Pasadena, Texas, the Harris County Central Labor Council and the Gulf Coast Building and Construction Trades Council joined with the Texas Gulf Coast BBQ Cookers Association BBQ Cook-Off Competition and Labor Day Celebration. The two-day event included food for purchase, entertainment, exhibits, crafts and children’s activities.
• In Pittsburgh, a plaque was unveiled renaming the 10th Street Bridge in honor of Philip Murray, founding president of the United Steelworkers.

In place of the city’s traditional Labor Day parade, workers in New York City will rally Saturday, Sept. 8, to demand long-term health care for ill Sept. 11 workers. Ralliers will urge Congress to pass comprehensive health care legislation, including ongoing treatment and medical monitoring for all workers made ill by their exposure to the toxic air at Ground Zero in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.

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