Labor Day 2006

Workers stand up for us all

The labor movement has made incredible contributions to our national standard of living over the past century. Bans on child labor, women’s suffrage, the eight-hour workday, the five-day work week, unemployment assistance, the minimum wage, the Civil Rights Act and other anti-discrimination statutes, workplace safety standards, workers’ compensation, the Family and Medical Leave Act – the social gains achieved by the labor movement are so numerous and so fundamental to our contemporary way of life that it’s easy to take them for granted.

Labor Day is our country’s annual occasion to recognize these important victories – and to imagine an alternate America where the labor movement had not met the success that it has over the past 100 years.

This Labor Day, as America celebrates these many achievements with a backyard barbeque or two, Senate Democrats are taking the opportunity to reflect on the important gains made for Washington working people and working families in the 2006 legislative session.

These include:

• Enhancing the public works construction “prevailing wage” program” (SB 5236);
• Utilizing apprentices on Department of Transportation public projects (SB 6480);
• Authorizing collective bargaining for family child care providers (HB 2353);
• Preserving the protections of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act by putting them in state statute (SB 6185);
• Improving unemployment benefits for workers between jobs (SB 6885);
• Creating a customized work force training program (SB 6326);
• Providing the COLAs for our public school teachers missed during the years that I-732 was suspended (SB 6381); and
• • Providing pay parity for home care agency workers (HB 2333).

Senate Democrats believe in making Washington a better state by improving opportunities for people who work hard for a living. We’ll never stop standing up for working people and working families. As history shows, American workers stand up for us all.