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Mark MacLeod's avatar

My grandfather was an elevator mechanic. He started working as a union member in 1915-16, with no 40 hour work week, no 8 hour day, no overtime pay, few paid holidays, no paid vacation, no health insurance, no pension. He retired in 1955 with all of those (except a pension, but was awarded one a few years later in a subsequent contract). All of those became the norms for the Baby Boomers. However, some are slipping away as union membership continues to decline: the defined benefit pension is disappearing in the private workplace, and even matched 401Ks are fading; overtime rules are being circumvented by naming workers “supervisors,” then working them long hours at low pay; health insurance coverage has declined and become more expensive; maximum earned vacation hours are capped; workplace safety standards are weakened and poorly enforced. I worked for that same union, later moving into management, thus seeing both sides of labor negotiations. Today, in retirement, I value the whole union movement and the benefits those early workers brought to the country, and I am thankful that the Biden administration has been working to reverse the 40 year attack on workers initiated during the Reagan years.

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Sherry Bellamy's avatar

Among the accomplishments of the labor movement are the restrictions and controls over child labor. Yet as we celebrate this holiday there are Repub controlled states that are eliminating restrictions on child employment, in particular allowing limits on age, hazards and hours of employment for children.

They are doing this primarily so that young immigrant children can be exploited in meat packing, farming and other hazardous jobs.

We must fight these terrible policies and protect children from exploitation and danger. We need federal laws that stop states from allowing the exploitation of the young.

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