Brothers and Sisters,
As we celebrate Labor Day this Monday, I want to start by saying Thank You. This year has been utterly unprecedented, and we have had to deal with extraordinary challenges. I want to recognize the hard work and courage of my UAW family in facing this terrible pandemic and working to keep one another safe.
Labor Day is the day that we celebrate and recognize the spirit, strength and life-changing contributions of working men and women across this nation. It is the voice, the sacrifice and the unwillingness to give up that defines our labor movement and our union.
So, I would like to remind all of us that it is labor that built America and America’s middle class. It is labor that has brought us fair wages, health care benefits, retirement, health and safety standards, a voice in the workplace and so much more. It is labor that stands up to social and civil injustice and it was the working men and women of this nation that stepped up when our country was in need of critical life-saving Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
Our brothers and sisters were among the first to go to work to make PPE, to make ventilators, to staff food banks and help out in countless ways in communities from coast to coast. But then, that is what we do — and what we have always done.
We celebrate this Labor Day differently. Rather than marching shoulder to shoulder, we will attend virtual marches and parades. Speeches will be livestreamed and shared on social platforms. However, one thing that is not changed is that we remain, as always, in kinship and SOLIDARITY.
So, sisters and brothers, however you celebrate Labor Day remember that we are a family. On this holiday, we come together to celebrate our victories, to mourn those we have lost, and stand together, as always, to ensure that the voices of our nation’s workers are never silenced.
I wish you a safe and happy holiday.
Tune in to labor’s virtual celebrations:
https://sites.google.com/aflcio.org/labordaytoolkit/home
- Watch UAW social channels for Labor Day postings
In Solidarity,
Rory L. Gamble |
