Monday, September 03, 2012

Happy Labor (Labour) Day!

It's the first Monday in September, and besides the fact the 2012-13 edition of the Miss Continental Pageant is going on in Chicago and it's considered the last unofficial day of summer (can't tell that by the temps here in Houston), it is Labor Day weekend.  

If you're north of the 49th parallel as most of my Canadian TransGriot readers are, it's Labour Day weekend

However you spell it, find your friendly neighborhood union member, bow down and thank them profusely for this three day weekend the labor movement bought and paid for with blood, sweat and tears.

You can also thank a union member while you're at it for the following:

  1. All breaks at work, including your lunch breaks
  2. Paid vacation
  3. Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
  4. Sick leave
  5. Social Security
  6. Minimum wage
  7. Civil Rights Act/Title VII - prohibits employer discrimination
  8. 8-hour work day
  9. Overtime pay
  10. Child labor laws
  11. Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)
  12. 40-hour work week
  13. Workers’ compensation (workers’ comp)
  14. Unemployment insurance
  15. Pensions
  16. Workplace safety standards and regulations
  17. Employer health care insurance
  18. Collective bargaining rights for employees
  19. Wrongful termination laws
  20. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA)
  21. Whistleblower protection laws
  22. Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) - prohibits employers from using a lie detector test on an employee
  23. Veteran's Employment and Training Services (VETS)
  24. Compensation increases and evaluations (i.e. raises)
  25. Sexual harassment laws
  26. Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
  27. Holiday pay
  28. Employer dental, life, and vision insurance
  29. Privacy rights
  30. Pregnancy and parental leave
  31. Military leave
  32. The right to strike
  33. Public education for children
  34. Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011 - requires employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work
  35. Laws ending sweatshops in the United States
The unions and the labor movement are one of our allies working with the trans community to get the Employment and Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed.

And with less than 70 days left until Election Day, this election is critical to us being able to keep all the precious things on that list that unions helped us get and the Republicans and US Chamber of Commerce wants to eliminate.  

So stop letting the GOP, Fox Noise and the conservafool movement bamboozle you into hatin' on unions and get busy not only supporting candidates that support the ability for people to organize to join a union, but support collective bargaining rights and all the other hard won workplace rights that are under attack. 

Happy Labour (Labor) Day!  

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