On Tuesday September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers marched from city hall to Union Square in New York City, holding the first-ever Labor Day parade. Despite the threat of losing their jobs, participants took an unpaid day off to honor American workers and draw attention to grievances they had with employers.

And the list of grievances was long. During this time, the average American worked twelve hour days, seven days a week, just to make a basic living, with children as young as six toiling alongside adults.

As years passed, more states began to hold these parades, but Congress would not legalize the holiday until 12 years later. A bloody strike by railway workers brought the issue of workers' rights to the public eye and provoked Congress to officially make the first Monday of September Labor Day.

Today, it's not uncommon to hear the phrase "Unions: The Folks Who Brought You the Weekend." And the saying is true: unions won the eight-hour day standard we all enjoy today. What many people don't realize is that workers and their unions had to fight for the eight-hour day for nearly 3/4 of a century (beginning in August 1866) before any national reform was enacted. The dream of an eight-hour work day finally became a reality in 1938, when the New Deal's Fair Labor Standards Act made it legally a full day of work throughout the United States.

The Struggle Continues

Although many Americans have now come to associate Labor Day as just a day off from work or the end of summer relaxation, it's important not to forget the sacrifices of our brothers and sisters, whose brave acts earned us the working rights we now possess. Unions have historically laid the groundwork for impressive grassroots campaigns to strengthen America's middle class and rebuild the economy in hard times. As we face the greatest recession since the Great Depression, unions continue to be at the heart of efforts to pass healthcare reform, restore economic balance and bring prosperity to all Americans.

This Labor Day, let's remind members of Congress just how many working families are still struggling to make ends meet under the strain of skyrocketing health care costs. Help send Congress back to DC with a mission to reform healthcare by joining us at send-off rallies across the country.

Events being held by SEIU and HCAN across the country on Labor Day, September 7th in Arkansas, Colorado, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Washington state are listed after the break.

Led in part by SEIU Local 1996 in Puerto Rico, close to 100,000 union members, students, and other activists marched in front of the capitol building in San Juan last week to protest Governor Luis Fortuño's plan to lay off more than 30,000 government employees and suspend public sector collective bargaining rights. Puerto Rico is currently in its fourth year of recession and has an unemployment rate of more than 15 percent. Governor Fortuño has since agreed to meet with representatives from the laid-off workers.

If you think agree that workers should not be made to pay the price for a crisis they did not create, send a letter to the Governor of Puerto Rico in strong protest of these anti-union and anti-public sector measures. Layoffs of public sector employees are set to begin on July 1, so please take action now: Click here to send a letter telling Governor Fortuño not to cut public sector services and jobs.

Qvisory, a non-profit organization, launched with the support of SEIU, combines advocacy with selected benefits focused on the needs of young workers. Qvisory relaunched last week with an updated website and new services to help get young workers through the recession.

"Job losses, wage cuts and disappearing health care are threatening a generation that is relying heavily on credit simply to survive," said Qvisory Treasurer Gina Glantz, Senior Advisor to the President of SEIU. "That's why Qvisory is adding new services to help this generation survive." Services include: Access to low cost dental insurance; a prepaid card with low fees that provides purchasing capabilities (among other benefits) for people who cannot obtain or choose not to use credit cards; free health and wellness services; and free financial counseling.

If you are an SEIU member, sign-up for a free membership here.

'Twas the night before Christmas when Wal-Mart told the world it decided to settle 63 lawsuits to the tune of $640 million; most of those lawsuits alleged that Wal-Mart "underpaid its employees."

So what prompted the usually greedy Grinch to give more than half a billion dollars to its employees? It must've been a passing wind of Christmas Cheer, right?  No.

The Wall Street Journal says one reason Wal-Mart paid out $640 million is because the world's largest retailer wants to improve its image ahead of its fight against the Employee Free Choice Act.  Wal-Mart appears to be afraid of that legislation because it would give employees the free choice to join unions and negotiate for better wages, benefits, and retirement security - something Wal-Mart employees certainly don't have now.

Here's what the Wall Street Journal said about the settlements:

But there may be something else going on. Remember the Employee Free Choice Act? [...]

Paul M. Secunda, an associate professor at Marquette University Law School, suggested Wal-Mart wanted to settle the lawsuits not just to avoid potentially more costly defeats in the courtroom, but to resolve issues that might be used to argue for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. The legislation, expected to be considered by Congress next year, is fiercely opposed by Wal-Mart because the company worries it will make it easier for workers to unionize.

Wal-Mart is familiar with fighting the Employee Free Choice Act.  FEC complaints were filed against the company in August alleging that Wal-Mart told its employees to vote against Democrats such as now President-elect Barack Obama because of their support of the Employee Free Choice Act.  And current Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott told reporters this fall why he's against the Employee Free Choice Act.  From the WSJ:

Card check is about power. Management has it, workers don't, and business doesn't want that to change. Consider the remarks made by Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott at an analyst meeting on Oct. 28, when he was asked about the possible coming of [the Employee Free Choice Act]: "We like driving the car and we're not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us."

But we will no longer get to enjoy the presence of Mr. Scott after February, as he is stepping down from leading the company in a surprise move announced just a month ago.  Long-time Wal-Mart operative Mike Duke will take over, giving Wal-Mart a fresh face to lead the company in 2009.  (And don't forget the company's brand new logo - goodbye smiley face, hello sunshine!)

Wal-Mart is evidently trying to spin itself a new image before it faces President-elect Obama and our new Congress to fight this important piece of our economic recovery program.

The Employee Free Choice Act can help raise wages and extend health insurance and retirement security to millions of people.  The New York Times, in an editorial this morning supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, said the Employee Free Choice Act is "vital legislation":

The measure is vital legislation and should not be postponed. Even modest increases in the share of the unionized labor force push wages upward, because nonunion workplaces must keep up with unionized ones that collectively bargain for increases. By giving employees a bigger say in compensation issues, unions also help to establish corporate norms, the absence of which has contributed to unjustifiable disparities between executive pay and rank-and-file pay. [...]

There is a strong argument that the slack labor market of a recession actually makes unions all the more important. Without a united front, workers will have even less bargaining power in the recession than they had during the growth years of this decade, when they largely failed to get raises even as productivity and profits soared. If pay continues to lag, it will only prolong the downturn by inhibiting spending.

So now we have the world's largest employer fighting a "vital" piece of an economic recovery program, just to keep its employees making $10.32/hr - while its current CEO makes in excess of $16,000/hr. 

Even with CEO Lee Scott, $640 million in settlements, and the infamous Smiley logo going out the door with 2008, there's not enough lipstick sold at every Wal-Mart in the world to make this pig pretty.

Please join our campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act to help millions of working people in these tough economic times.

Above photo from Creative Commons Flickr user Lone Primate.

There is a great editorial in The New York Times today on unions and the Obama Administration's commitment to labor--giving basically a full-throated endorsement of the Employee Free Choice Act and why it is such an important part of an economic recovery program.

Employee Free Choice legislation:

"The measure is vital legislation and should not be postponed. Even modest increases in the share of the unionized labor force push wages upward, because nonunion workplaces must keep up with unionized ones that collectively bargain for increases. By giving employees a bigger say in compensation issues, unions also help to establish corporate norms, the absence of which has contributed to unjustifiable disparities between executive pay and rank-and-file pay."

"The argument against unions -- that they unduly burden employers with unreasonable demands -- is one that corporate America makes in good times and bad, so the recession by itself is not an excuse to avoid pushing the bill next year. The real issue is whether enhanced unionizing would worsen the recession, and there is no evidence that it would...Without a united front, workers will have even less bargaining power in the recession than they had during the growth years of this decade, when they largely failed to get raises even as productivity and profits soared."

"If Mr. Obama's campaign promises are to be kept, that mindset cannot prevail again. Mr. Obama's creation of a task force on middle-class issues, to be led by Vice President-elect Joseph Biden and including Ms. Solis and other high-ranking officials, is an encouraging sign that labor issues will not be given short shrift."

The U.S. Department of Labor announced at 8:30 a.m. today that another 533,000 jobs were lost in November; catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent--and bringing the grand total number of jobs lost this year to a whopping 1.7 million.

Further adding to these depressing stats: many of the jobs lost aren't coming back. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Among the unemployed, the number of persons who lost their job and did not expect to be recalled to work increased by 298,000 to 4.7 million in November. Over the past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 2.0 million.

These numbers register as the largest number of job reductions seen in 34 years, since a whopping 602,000 positions were slashed in December 1974, when the country was in a severe recession.

The loss of 533,000 payroll jobs was much deeper than the 320,000 figure that economists were forecasting. And just think: only a couple of months ago, Bush and John McCain were saying the fundamentals of this economy were strong.

President-elect Barack Obama has called for a massive economic recovery bill to generate 2.5 million jobs over his first two years in office, reiterating the nation's need for this urgent plan of action in a statement issued this morning:

"The 533,000 jobs lost last month, the worst job loss in 34 years, is more than a dramatic reflection of the growing economic crisis we face. Each of those lost jobs represents a personal crisis for a family somewhere in America. Our economy has already lost nearly 2 million jobs during this recession, which is why we need an Economic Recovery Plan that will save or create at least 2.5 million more jobs over two years while we act decisively to maintain the flows of credit on which so many American families and American businesses depend.

"There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better. But now is the time to respond with urgent resolve to put people back to work and get our economy moving again. At the same time, this painful crisis also provides us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of ordinary people by rebuilding roads and modernizing schools for our children, investing in clean energy solutions to break our dependence on imported oil, and making an early down payment on the long-term reforms that will grow and strengthen our economy for all Americans for years to come."

This November jobs report did include one slightly positive statistic for workers. From AP:

"Workers with jobs saw modest wage gains. Average hourly earnings rose to $18.30 in November, a 0.4 percent increase from the previous month. Over the year, wages have grown 3.7 percent."

This rise in unemployment means families will undoubtedly be facing holiday hard times. Here at SEIU, we are calling on Congress to support a new economic model that addresses the real concerns of America's working families. We must act now to jump-start job creation, fix our national healthcare system and rebuild our economy and the middle class.