Labor Day is the time of year when the nation honors the working people who have built this country and made it prosperous. It is also a time to remember the achievements of the organized labor movement in United States history. As is often noted every September, many of the basic rights and benefits that are sometimes taken for granted were not kindly handed to workers by employers. It took the hard work and dedication of thousands of union men and women who struggled bravely to win these rights.

The labor movement in the United States led the struggles to:

• End child labor
• Establish the legal right of workers to form unions and collectively bargain for wages, benefits and working conditions
• Establish the 8 hour work day and paid overtime
• Win workers' comp benefits for workers injured on the job
• Secure unemployment insurance for workers who lose their jobs
• Secure a guaranteed minimum wage
• Improve workplace safety and reduce on the job fatalities
• Win pensions for workers
• Win health care insurance for workers
• Win paid sick leave, vacations, and holidays as standard benefits for most workers
• Win the right for public sector workers to collectively bargain
• Win passage of the Civil Right Acts and Title VII which outlaws job discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin
• Win passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act
• Win passage of the Family Medical Leave Act

The labor movement today has helped working people win a stronger voice in politics.

Unions are registering record numbers of voters from union households and building a grassroots political movement. The percentage of voters from union households increased to 26% in the 2000 national elections, up from 23% in 1996 and 19% in 1992.

In the 2000 elections, unions:

• Registered 2.3 million new union household voters
• Made 8 million phone calls to union households
• Distributed more than 14 million leaflets at union worksites
• E-mailed some 60,000 E-VOTE cards urging people to vote
• Supported 845 union members running for office

Unions today are using their political power to:

• Stop attacks on the 40 hour work and paid overtime
• Defend the nation's safety and health laws
• Protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare
• Protect the rights of patients against the abuses of managed care
• Defeat radical measures that would deny the freedom of union members to participate in politics

The labor movement today is leading efforts to strengthen Workers' Rights in the global economy.

• Unions have mobilized members for marches and rallies to stop the U.S. government from signing trade agreements that allow multinational corporations to trample on the rights of workers and destroy the environment.
• The labor movement has made its voice heard in Congress and has been successful at defeating measures such as "Fast Track" trade authority that do not include protections for workers' rights and the environment.
• The labor movement has also become a major force in the global campaign to eradicate sweatshops.Through the efforts of unions, students, and thousands of other activists committed to justice in the global economy, workers around the world are beginning to see improvements in wages and working conditions.

The labor movement today has become a powerful voice in the fight for immigrant workers' rights.

• Unions everywhere are currently mobilizing to build support for legislation in Congress to extend democratic rights to undocumented workers.
• Unions have called attention to the fact that current immigration laws allow employers to use the threat of deportation against undocumented workers seeking fair treatment on the job.
• The labor movement today understands that legalization is a necessary step in helping undocumented workers organize to win better wages, better working conditions, and the full protection of U.S. labor laws.

The labor movement today is leading the fight for decent wages, benefits, and working conditions for all workers.

• In 1996 unions helped win passage of a much needed increase in the minimum wage and are continuing efforts to make the minimum wage a "living wage," not a "poverty wage."
• Unions throughout the country have led coalitions that have won "living wage" laws in Los Angeles, Detroit, Boston, and more than 50 other cities and counties nationwide. Most of these laws require contractors who receive public funding to pay their workers wages that will lift them out of poverty.
• The labor movement has been leading efforts to curb employers' abuses of part time and temporary workers. Along with workers' rights advocates, unions are fighting for tougher laws to prevent companies from misclassifying workers as independent contractors in order to avoid paying them full wages and benefits.

In the United States today unions are aggressively organizing and helping a new generation of working people win a voice on the job and the power to fight for decent standards of living. Whether it's truck drivers, janitors, meatpacking workers, public employees, grad students, health care workers, hotel workers, or construction workers: today's unions are helping the nation's workers join the labor movement and become part of the fight for better wages, better benefits and safer jobs for all working people.