Labor Day is dedicated to workers uniting, using their collective strength to demand changes in work policy to include respect, safety, health care, livable wages, shorter hours, sick time, etc. Sadly, the fierce and strategic labor organizer, Jane McAlevey, died at age 59 in July. Jane had an incredible impact on organized labor and you can read some tributes here.  She published a number of books and this is what I wrote in my reading log after finishing A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy (2020):

“This book fired me up! There’s so much we can accomplish if we stand together. I wish I had a job where I could organize a union. Biggest takeaway: even in states w all GOP elected (WV), the teachers & school workers won huge demands via strike!” No matter if you’re in the work place or not, I highly recommend reading this inspirational book because Jane makes it clear that people power is the way forward in every single challenge we face. People standing shoulder-to-shoulder as we demand better for people and planet.

I believe Jane would be thrilled by some of the powerful collective actions happening right now:

• 10,000 hotel workers with Unite Here (union for workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries. Membership is diverse, predominantly women and people of color, hailing from all corners of the planet) are on strike across the country right now!  You can pledge your solidarity to the workers at Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt here.
• 17,000 CWA workers are on strike at AT&T Southeast. You can pledge your support here. Note: I’m a former Communication Workers of America union member!
• Per Washington Square News: A group of faculty and staff at NYU will withhold administrative tasks for the fall semester starting Labor Day until senior leadership removes police from campus and pardons those facing disciplinary action for their participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, a recent pledge signed by Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine reads. This was a welcome development as universities crack down on free speech and weaponize antisemitism to include the use of “Zionism.”
• Hundreds of thousands of people in Tel Aviv took to the streets last night to call out Netanyahu for undermining all efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza (including the assassination of Hamas’s lead negotiator). The government responded by spraying protestors with skunk water, a tactic the IDF has used on Palestinians for many years and that former IDF soldiers used on student protestors at Columbia University last spring. This morning, Histadrut (Israel’s largest trade union), led a general strike that “closed government and municipal offices as well as schools and many private businesses. Israel’s international airport, Ben Gurion, was reported to have shut down at 8am local time (6am BST) for two hours. The Tel Aviv labour court ordered an end to the strike on Monday, ruling that it was politically motivated and had not been called for economic reasons.” Can’t help but note the irony of the “only democracy in the Middle East” shutting down a general strike. Also want to note that we in the U.S. are highly propagandized in regards to our government’s role in propping up the far-right Netanyahu, and that Israeli media is openly reporting the facts about Netanyahu’s disregard for making a deal to release the hostages. Here, here, here, and here  are pertinent headlines from Israel. We aren’t seeing anything like that in U.S. media.

Lastly, PLEASE take 2 minutes to personalize comments in support of United Farm Workers who labor in the fields to bring food to our tables. They work in all sorts of extreme weather, including in dangerously high temperatures. The comment period is now open for Federal Heat Safety Regulations and I hope you’ll join me in advocating for training, shade, cool water, and paid rest breaks for the workers. You can do that HERE.

I’ll close this Labor Day post with some wise words from  Mother Jones:

• “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”
• “The first thing is to raise hell,” says I. “That’s always the first thing to do when you’re faced with an injustice and you feel powerless. That’s what I do in my fight for the working class.”
• “Our present civilization is one of brute force. We hope to make it a civilization of justice and love.”

Thank you for reading this far. Happy Labor Day!
Solidarity! ✊🏽