The Energy of the Collective

Labor Motion by Richard Levins Morales

As we head into the vacation weekend we hope you’ll take time to replicate on the that means and historical past of Labor Day, and why its significance is heightened at a time once we are seeing a resurgence of widespread collective motion geared toward combating staggering wage and wealth inequality and injustice.

Labor Day was established as a nationwide vacation in 1894 on the behest of labor activists who pushed for a federal vacation to honor and acknowledge the American Labor Motion and the various contributions of the employee. Over time evidently the traditional that means of the vacation has been hollowed out to the extent that the final inhabitants extra so observes the day as a marker for the altering of the seasons, and on this age of consumerism, “Labor Day Gross sales” dominate the weekend.

Shamefully, most of the staff that the COVID-19 pandemic uplifted as important — the service trade, health-care staff, home staff, and farmworkers — don’t get Labor Break day. The irony is brutal.

Within the first quarter of 2023, 69 % of the entire wealth in the USA was owned by the highest 10 % of earners. By comparability, the bottom 50 % of earners solely owned 2.4 % of the entire wealth (Statista Analysis Division, through Federal Reserve). The influence of this disparity ripples into each facet of life creating a high quality of life divide that’s being known as the second Gilded Age.

But it appears like one thing is starting to shift within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic — a renewed understanding and recognition that collectively we maintain the facility to create change. Labor actions are spreading nationwide. In keeping with knowledge from the Cornell College Faculty of Industrial Labor Relations, as of August of this yr, greater than 320,000 staff in the USA have participated in at the least 230 strikes — up from 224,000 staff in all of 2022.

The span of the strikes has been huge and various, from educators and supply service staff to hospitality staff, airline staff, rail staff and health-care staff, amongst others. Placing Hollywood writers and actors have introduced the leisure trade’s manufacturing to a halt. Nicely-known corporations like Starbucks and Amazon have begun to unionize (regardless of aggressive union-busting efforts) contributing to a shift in public opinion. Gallup experiences that in 2022, 71 % of People permitted of labor unions, the very best present of assist since 1965.

At The Fund we stand in solidarity with staff throughout all industries who’re combating for financial justice, a dwelling wage, dignity, and respect. We maintain reverence for the activists and organizers that laid the muse for securing the office protections which can be in place right now, and in addition acknowledge that there’s extra work to be finished. We’re decisively pro-union as we perceive the facility of collective bargaining and motion to be transformative.

During the last yr, The Fund has labored in collaboration with analysis leaders at UC Santa Barbara and union leaders of the Central Coast Labor Council to efficiently set up the area’s first labor heart at UCSB, an establishment that may function an amazing useful resource to labor organizing campaigns in our area.

We imagine that the occasions we live by are paving the best way for a extra simply and equitable future — but additionally perceive that as a way to get there, intersectional solidarity is critical. So this Labor Day weekend, we ask that you just maintain house and present assist for the battle of working people and the various who’re at present endeavor campaigns for honest wages, wholesome working situations, dignity, and respect.

Marcos Vargas is government director and Alina Rey Keswani is improvement and communications supervisor of the Fund for Santa Barbara.