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