I want to extend my warmest wishes to the working men and women of America’s great Metal Trades Unions. You are the beating heart of the greatest middle class in the world. Thank you for your commitment, your talent, your hard work and your service to our country. On behalf of everyone at the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, I’m honored to wish you and your families a happy, safe, and healthy Labor Day weekend and holiday
Labor Day means many different things to the American worker and people. To some it’s the end of summer, to others it’s back to school or a needed rest from the daily grind. However for many working people and union members especially, Labor Day stands for something special and much more important.
Every day metal trades workers are creating an America built to last by building our national defense, maintaining our countries critical infrastructure and complex facilities and caring for their loved ones. Labor Day is our day to honor our work, to stand up, speak out and take pride in what we do. Each one of our members makes a profound contribution to our communities and our nation with the critical work we do; because the work of our members is built upon the work of one another. Our work in the Metal Trades connects us all.
Labor Day is the celebration of a promise fulfilled by America’s Labor Unions. For generations of metal trades members, that promise has paid off with a good job, fair workplace treatment, good wages and a seat at the bargaining table that has sustained the economic security of America’s unmatched middle class.
It’s too easy to lose sight amid the hoopla and festivity of a national holiday and the fleeting moments contained within a three day weekend that our political and economic adversaries continually lay claim to the bogus claim that our country can’t afford unions. They say that labor unions and collective bargaining are the problem with this country. We know better. They’ve got it just plain wrong. Unions helped build America’s middle class. We are and always will be part of the solution. We’re right, they’re wrong and they know it!!
On this Labor Day 2016 … Metal Trades members know what’s at stake, and we all know what we have to do.
Therefore I invite each and every one of you to join together this Labor Day weekend not only in reflection, celebration and joy for a job well done by the labor movement and our forefathers but in recognition that this holiday has meaning that stands for far more than a break from work or a long weekend but serves as a call to action at this moment to each and every one of us, from coast to coast, from the streets to the suites and demands we defend that promise that our union has fulfilled which ensures that dignity and opportunity remain the birthright of all workers in this country throughout time and memorial.
Working folks built this country, we built it together, block by block, building by building, city by city. Union labor and collective bargaining built the middle class as it allowed each generation to do a little better than the one before. That is our proud legacy,
Thank you my Metal Trades family for the work you do each and every day, through the good times and bad, to serve your country, your family and our union. May God bless and keep you and your families healthy and safe this Labor Day Weekend.
“The Union Makes Me Strong”
In solidarity,
Jimmy Hart,
President
Metal Trades Department