Labor Day is not just a day off. It represents the lives hundreds of workers put on the line to make America great.

Our Los Alamos Federation of School Employees (LAFSE), a part of AFL-CIO has helped make working conditions in Los Alamos Public Schools where more than 60 percent of teachers belong even better.

LAFSE is responsible for leave days, the sick leave bank, for speech and language therapists, nurses and counselors earning the same pay as teachers instead of earning less as the state mandated, for the transfer policy, for any increase in wages, as well as grievance and disciplinary policies to name a few benefits dues paying Union members have secured for all employees.

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Employers and Corporations did not feel generous and decide to give you two days off every week to have a social/personal life. (We now call them weekends). Corporations did not just feel like being nice one day and give their employees paid vacations. CEOs didn’t get together in a board room and say “Let’s give our employees more rights at work” or “Maybe there should be laws to limit our power over an employee”.

Virtually ALL the benefits you have at work, whether you work in the public or private sector, all of the benefits and rights you enjoy everyday are there because unions fought hard and long for them against big business who did everything they could to prevent giving you your rights. Many union leaders and members even lost their lives for things we take for granted today.

Corporations use to work employees 80+ hours a week, offer no breaks, hire children, offer horrid, unsanitary work conditions, paid literally next to nothing, and even murder. Not murder with a pen like they do today, but actual murder. They basically did whatever they wanted.

Thank A Union: 36 Ways Unions Have Improved Your Life

• Weekends
• All Breaks at Work, including your Lunch Breaks
• Paid Vacation
• FMLA
• Sick Leave
• Social Security
• Minimum Wage
• Civil Rights Act/Title VII (Prohibits Employer Discrimination)
• 8-Hour Work Day
• Overtime Pay
• Child Labor Laws
• Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)
• 40 Hour Work Week
• Worker’s Compensation (Worker’s Comp)
• Unemployment Insurance
• Pensions
• Workplace Safety Standards and Regulations
• Employer Health Care Insurance
• Collective Bargaining Rights for Employees
• Wrongful Termination Laws
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
• Whistleblower Protection Laws
• Employee Polygraph Protect Act (Prohibits Employer from using a lie detector test on an employee)
• Veteran’s Employment and Training Services (VETS)
• Compensation increases and Evaluations (Raises)
• Sexual Harassment Laws
• Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Holiday Pay
• Employer Dental, Life, and Vision Insurance
• Privacy Rights
• Pregnancy and Parental Leave
• Military Leave
• The Right to Strike
• Public Education for Children
• Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011 (Requires employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work)
• Laws Ending Sweatshops in the United States

Maybe we could just admit that while not perfect, like anything else, unions have done great things for working people that they use and benefit from everyday of their lives.

Maybe a family got to have some of the best moments of their lives while on vacation from work, and they got to come back to a job still there waiting for them, because of unions.

In fact, we should thank Unions everyday of our working lives.

God Bless Unions!

Solidarity Forever!

Thank you UNIONS for all you have done and continue to do.

Source: Daily Kos 2012