Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day, everyone!

Summary

• RR News
• The Importance of Labor Day

Rabble Rouser News

AFSCME International has scheduled a hearing to discuss our 7 protests against the conduct of the Local 696 July 2023 election. That hearing will take place on 12 September 2023 at 10am. I wish I could invite you all to watch, but it is a closed hearing. I will update you that day- but outside of juicy gossip there won’t be much to say until the Judicial Panel Investigator renders their judgment.

In the meantime, Rabble Rousers including myself are available to hear worker complaints- with the caveat that we operate strictly as volunteers, and are limited in our ability to assist unless and until we are in office. You may contact me here at this email, or you can contact info@696rabblerousers.com.

Labor Day has roots going back to New York City in 1882. 10,000 workers marched in that first parade! At the time, workers had to fight against Rockefellers and Carnegies. Today, it’s the Musks and Bezoses of the world- and for us specifically, it’s the mayor and City Council.

The first unions of the world had to fight to get decent pay and safe working conditions. And I mean “fight” literally- workers fought, bled, and died for the things we take for granted, like weekends and lunch breaks. In 1938, AFSCME District Council 33- you know, us, was- was formed after the 1938 garbage riots where sanitation workers in our home city went to war. These were not calm and complacent leaders- these early organizers were troublemakers and agitators. They were Rabble Rousers.

They fought that war for you. They fought it for me. They fought so that we could go to work and be paid fairly and treated like human beings.

Thanks to Ronald Reagan and the cult he uplifted, unions have been weakening for decades. Today, unions are weaker than they’ve ever been. But that’s changing right now. The Writers Guild of America has been on strike for months, and the Screen Actors Guild joined them shortly after. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters recently won a great contract with UPS, and for the first time in years workers across the country are realizing how much power they wield.

That is why we celebrate. On Monday, we pause to reflect on the importance of the labor movement, what it’s done for us, and what it can do moving forward. All AFSCME District Council 33 members are invited to participate in the annual labor day parade starting 8:30am at 1301 South Columbus Boulevard- The Sheet Metal Worker’s Local 19 Union Hall. I will be there, and I hope you will too!

Thanks for reading. Just by being a part of this mailing list, you are helping to advance the conversation and the cause of organized labor.

In solidarity,