New Year Resolutions For a Labor Activist

 

New Year's Day is the perfect time for looking forward to the coming year. It's a time to reflect on the changes we want (or need) to make - and resolve to follow through on those changes. Here are a few of my New Year's Resolutions::

• I will remember that a Labor Activist thinks and acts globally as well as locally.

  "Without labor nothing prospers.".        Popular banner  

• I will read a book or attend a lecture about the history of the Labor Movement.

"The history of America has been largely created by the deeds of its working people and their organizations. Nor has this contribution been confined to raising wages and bettering work conditions; it has been fundamental to almost every effort to extend and strengthen our democracy". William Cahn, labor authority and historian

• I will walk a picket line or attend a protest rally for another labor organization.

"An injury to one is the concern of all."  Terence Powderly

• I will vote for candidates to public office who support worker's rights. I will hold those elected to public office accountable for their actions or inactions regarding labor issues.

"There's s a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls." Walter Reuther

• I will proudly wear my union insignia both on and off work as a badge of honor.

"The first thing I want to say to you as individuals and as a movement-if you're going to be something, if you're going to do something, you have to be proud of yourself. And you have to be proud of your heritage as a Labor Movement just as you are proud of your family, or your religion, or whatever else it might be." Senator Herbert H. Humphrey (D-Minn., 1949-1964)

• I will assist my union in actions to ensure The Employee Free Choice Act becomes the law of the land in 2010.

"The rights of employees freely to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining should be fully protected." President Franklin D. Roosevelt, message to Congress, 2/2/1935