Labor Day is OUR holiday, and union activists, including OCSEA members, were out celebrating in full force this past weekend. From parades and picnics to festivals and fairs, union members reminded their communities that life Is Better in A Union!

 

"The collective strength that unions provide—to take on power and to create and build power of our own—is what unions do. It’s in our blood. It’s how we won the weekend. It’s how we won paid vacation, the eight-hour workday, and Social Security. And it’s why, in states with the most unionized workers, workers make more money, more people have health care, and there are greater investments in our schools," wrote Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga in his Labor Day message.

 

How did you celebrate Labor Day? Send photos to communications@ocsea.org or tag @OCSEA on social media.

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Seventy-one (71) percent of Americans approve of labor unions, according to the Labor Day Gallup Poll published this week, matching the recent high from 2022. That’s the highest union approval rating since the 1950s.

 

Moreover, nearly half of poll respondents (47%) said they want unions to have more influence than they do today, the highest level of support in the past 25 years.

 

“As our country faces a cost-of-living crisis engineered by an administration that puts billionaire profits ahead of working families, more and more people are seeing the value in workers having a seat at the table,” AFSCME President Patrick Moran said. “Despite unrelenting attacks from the administration and anti-worker politicians in Congress and state legislatures, union popularity continues to rise because people want safe workplaces, fair wages, a secure retirement, and health care they can afford.”

 

Gallup conducts an annual poll on union popularity and releases its findings just before Labor Day. Over the last six years, public approval of labor unions has remained high and steady, between 67% and 71%.

 

Despite Americans’ desire for stronger unions, less than a third expect union influence to grow in the future, the poll shows.

 

As OCSEA and AFSCME members continue working hard to close the gap between what people want and what they expect, there is heavy mobilization to elect pro-worker politicians to all levels of government. The AFSCME Get Organized (GO) campaign is giving more workers a voice on the job and a seat at the table––to unrig an economy that benefits billionaires and corporations more than working families and retirees.

 

AFSCME members “will continue to organize to give more workers a voice,” Moran said, “which will benefit not just the workers but the communities they serve.”

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Watch AFL-CIO State of the Unions

From the Ohio AFL-CIO:

At marches and rallies, picnics and parades, Labor Day is workers’ day. It’s a peaceful celebration of the power we hold when we stand together in a union—and the power that all of us have to take back our country for working people, not corporate CEOs or billionaires.

 

"Throughout our history, the labor movement has marched, fought and stood together to win every bit of progress: to end child labor and make dangerous jobs safer. We stand in solidarity for fair wages, affordable health care, and time off to spend with family, no matter where you come from or the color of your skin," said Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga. "But in the labor movement, our work is never done. That is why we must show our solidarity after Labor Day to elect candidates like Dr. Amy Acton for governor and Sherrod Brown for US Senate that will stand up to the greed and corruption and work with us to bring costs down, invest in public education and end the cycle of corruption."

 

The labor movement and our allies are hosting nearly 1,000 Workers’ Labor Day events across the country to join together, speak out and fight back for what workers deserve.

 

Together, we’re all showing that working people are ready to fight for a better future. Whether in the streets or on the shop floor, in union halls or the halls of Congress, workers are standing up for the economy and the country we all deserve.