As I write this, it is Labor Day and I am a retired laborer.
Labor Day is the day America celebrates the working men and women of this nation, the men and women who earn their wages through putting in their sweat rather than through collecting dividends and interest from stocks and bonds.
All of us should remember to acknowledge those who have to work on their holiday. Thank that sales clerk. Acknowledge the man who cuts your condo lawn. Make a larger tip than usual to your server. And, if you get a chance, give a nod of thanks to the Democratic Party that always supports labor.
Democrats have long supported laborers in their struggles to achieve safe working conditions, 40-hour work weeks, paid vacations, sick leave and other health and retirement benefits. They supported workers in their struggle to create Social Security and Medicare so that no longer did those 40 percent of laborers who work for minimum wages end their working lives in poverty and ill health.
I wouldn’t be retired today (age 74) if it weren’t for Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt and Social Security. Democrats are always behind improving the minimum wages of America’s lowest paid laborers.
–George Thomas, Vancouver
