Today, I'm asking you to do one thing, and it has nothing to do with donating money to this campaign.

When you cross paths with someone working a job that makes your day-to-day life better—and I promise you, it will happen many times today—tell them "thank you."

Tell them you appreciate the work that they do. That it matters to you, and to your community.

That's it.

Say thank you to the people who build our roads and bridges. Keep our water systems working. Teach our kids and take care of the sick among us. Race into our burning buildings. Grow our food, build our cars, and pick up the garbage off our streets.

Say thank you—because these are the people who make America run. Not the Wall Street bankers, not the CEOs or hedge fund managers. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Today, you'll notice that a lot of politicians are afraid to say the word "union."

It's one of the ugliest things about politics: The tendency to take a concept we all ought to be able to agree on, and contort it into something unrecognizable and divisive. Something false.

Here's the truth: Unions built the American middle class. With the dues they paid, the picket lines they walked, and the negotiations they sweated through, fighting for rights that benefit every American worker.

Minimum wage. Overtime pay. The 40-hour workweek. Being able to take weekends off. Non-union workers only have these rights because of the sacrifices made by organized labor.

I promise you if I’m elected president, together, we’ll protect and strengthen the right to organize and collectively bargain.

And, to workers: I’ll never forget the battles you’ve waged and victories you’ve won, and I’ll never forget to stand with you and with labor unions every day.

-Joe