Hello,
We enjoyed touching base with our members at the BBQ yesterday. Thank you
to Josh and Eric for grilling the burgers and dogs, to Paula for the shopping,
and to Carl, Krista and Lisa for the clean up and prep. We had many
guests from CTA including our Board Director, Dana Dillon, our NEA Board Member
Doreen McQuire-Griggs, and Cathy McGuigan, our CTA staff person.
Thank you to all who were able to join us. They heard our special guest Carolyn
Doggett, Executive Director of CTA speak and may have interacted with some
other folks from CTA. They heard about initiatives on the November ballot
that impact our work in our classrooms, schools as well as our union, our
pensions, and colective bargaining. We were joined by folks from CTA who
remind us that CTA advocates for us and our profession. Thank you for
taking the time to become better informed. If you missed the BBQ, we will
have other opportunities for you to get involved in YCTA as well as learn more
about these iniitiatives and other items on the November ballot.
Today I want to wish you a Happy Labor Day. Enjoy
the three day weekend. Let's also remember the meaning behind the
holiday. "Labor Day, the first Monday in September,
is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic
achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to
the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being
of our country." From the U.S. Department of Labor website.
Union proud. Unions have brought us more than this weekend - they have
brought us the weekend in the form of a 40 hour work week. Unions have
worked for job safety and child labor laws. Using the power of organizing
individuals to advocate for the bigger whole, unions have brought us
better wages and working conditions for all including non-union workers.
I am proud to be union and celebrate this day of rememberance. I believe
that together we are better and can do more than we can as isolated individuals
to advocate for our members, our profession and our community. I am union
proud and hope that you are too.
Remembering that moment is bittersweet on a Labor
Day when so many Americans are unemployed, when wages are stagnant or dropping,
and when the labor movement itself is in stark decline.
Only 12.3 percent of American wage and salary
workers belong to unions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, down
from a peak of about one-third of the work force in 1955. A movement
historically associated with the brawny workers in auto, steel, rubber,
construction, rail, and the ports now represents more employees in the public
sector (7.9 million) than in the private sector (7.4 million).
Even worse than the falling membership
numbers is the extent to which the ethos animating organized labor is
increasingly foreign to American culture. The
union movement has always been attached to a set of values — solidarity being
the most important, the sense that each should look out for the interests of
all. This promoted other commitments: to
mutual assistance, to a rough-and-ready sense of equality, to a disdain for elitism,
to a belief that democracy and individual rights did not stop at the plant gate
or the office reception room. Excerpt.from E.J. Dionne / Syndicated columnist
"Recognizing the immense contributions of America's unions" You
can read the entire editorial at http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2012804832_dionne06.html?syndication=rss
Please join me
in celebrating the contribution of LABOR on this Labor Day.
For more
information about Labor Day, log on to CTA.org at http://www.cta.org/en/About-CTA/Who-We-Are/Labor-History.aspx
Have a wonderful
weekend.
Thank you for
all you do,
Dina