Today is May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, around the world. In addition to the federal Labor Day holiday we observe on the first Monday in September, this is a day to celebrate, honor, and uplift workers and the labor movement’s ongoing fight for the rights and dignity we all deserve.
The American Federation of Labor officially declared International Workers’ Day to mark a general strike across the U.S. in 1886. But in the days following, the deadly Haymarket massacre took place in Chicago when striking workers rallied for an eight-hour workday. Unfortunately, some were killed and many injured after a bomb was thrown and police opened fire, but workers kept up the fight with annual demonstrations all over the world.
Ultimately, U.S. workers won the eight-hour work day, the 40-hour work week, a minimum wage, child labor laws, health and safety protections, benefits, and more. These labor rights didn’t come quickly or easily, but with generations of organizers' hard work and determination.
Like Cesar Chavez Day and Labor Day, this holiday holds special meaning for me as I look back on my family’s relationship with the labor movement and the values my childhood instilled in me that led me to pursue a path of public service.
Fighting for workers’ rights, advocating for hardworking families, and standing up for unions is in my blood. It’s how I was raised: some of my earliest memories were formed in a modest trailer in La Paz, a little town in the Tehachapi Mountains and the headquarters of the United Farmworkers of America.
My parents were recruited to help Filipino and Latino farmworkers advocate for better wages and working conditions, alongside iconic labor leaders Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Philip Vera Cruz.
Everyone was there because of the mission, to fight for the rights and lives each of us deserves.
Though we’ve come a long way and achieved many wins for workers throughout history, we can’t give up or become complacent as right-wing and corporate interests try to undo decades of progress by attacking unions, relaxing child labor laws, and blocking a higher federal minimum wage.
The labor movement is a never-ending fight, and I am proud to stand with you as we keep it up.
In solidarity,
Rob
