September 1, 2022

Labor Day 2022: Our Unions Are Stronger and More Active Than Ever

By Julie Lind

San Mateo Central Labor Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer

Most folks have heard the saying/seen the bumper sticker: “Unions – the people who brought you the weekend.” This Labor Day weekend, we ask you to remember why we celebrate and reflect on the positive impact that unions have had and continue to have on our society.

Weekends off, overtime pay/the 8-hour day, OSHA protections, child labor laws, paid leave, workers comp, wage laws, social security, free public education and so much more would not have happened without the American labor movement. And organized labor continues to lead the critical work to protect and enhance these rights and benefits through our collective efforts.
In San Mateo County, the labor movement has made tremendous progress over the past year. We’ve fought together for fair contracts, lobbied for critical legislation at all levels of government, advocated for racial and economic justice, and helped put labor champions on the path to electoral victory. We’ve worked to support organizing efforts across sectors, expanded our community partnerships and banded together to improve the lives of working people throughout our County and beyond.

Through a $500,000 California government grant earned for our innovative nonprofit organization with the help and leadership of Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Kevin Mullin and Senator Josh Becker, we will continue to offer our Trades Introduction Program courses and can offer students increased supportive services as well as class time childcare reimbursement for the first time since the program’s inception. Since the onset of the pandemic, in partnership with Second Harvest Silicon Valley (a partnership we’ve enjoyed for nearly 40 years), we have worked together to provide groceries to nearly thirty thousand families, to the tune of nearly two million pounds of food. Through another grant earned by our nonprofit we can now offer increased hardship assistance and rent relief to our union members in crisis.

Nationally, we elected the first female President in the history of the AFL-CIO in Liz Shuler and its first African-American Secretary Treasurer, Fred Redmond. In California, Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher became the first woman and first person of color to serve as Chief Officer of the California Labor Federation.

Our unions are stronger and more active than ever and will continue to lead the fight for a balanced economy that gives everyone a fair shot at the American Dream. Organizing is on the rise, our approval numbers remain high, and collective action is starting to beat back corporate greed. From victories at Amazon and Starbucks, to the tech industry and beyond, workers are joining together to take a stand for the wages, hours and working conditions they deserve. They know that forming a union means having a real voice on the job. In fact, the number of petitions filed at the National Labor Relations Board by workers to exercise their freedom join a union is up 69 percent compared to last year. That’s why California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Gonzalez Fletcher established “Unionize California” to help even more workers interested in joining our labor family find the path to do so.

Much of the work that we do is dependent on government agencies and policies that support a pro-worker agenda. That’s why elections are so important, and why we put so much into our political program. By electing candidates at every level of government who will fight for America’s working class and uplift the labor movement, we can keep making real progress in the fight for a fair economy and a just society.

As American Federation of Labor founder Samuel Gompers said, “Our movement is of the working people, for the working people, by the working people…There is not a right too long denied which we do not aspire to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured we are not determined to abolish.” The future of work is bright, my friends. And it is we who are the light.