Happy Labor Day

Henry Green Labor Day Statement

For Immediate Release: August 29, 2014
Contact: Henry Green,
Candidate for the Maryland General Assembly, District 33 // Phone: 443-534-3414


On Labor Day we honor the dignity of workers and the work they perform, and we honor the contributions of unions to those workers, our nation, our state and our communities. All workers, all working families, and even those fortunate folks who consider themselves “management”, owe a debt to the work that our unions have done on behalf of America. Whether you carry a union card or not, all working families share the same values and principles: the right to a decent education, to economic opportunity for all, to an environment that is healthy, and to ethical representative government.

As Molly Ivins once wrote: If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.

She was talking about the way that labor enlarges the economic pie and allows all of us to share in the bounty. And, when middle class income rises, the nation’s prosperity becomes deeper and wider. Unfortunately, because labor laws and worker protections are so weak, labor’s influence on broad middle class prosperity has been diluted and lawmakers at the state and federal level need to address that problem with some urgency. No one in America should be denied the right to carry a union card; no one in America should be deprived of the right to union representation.

So, on this Labor Day 2014, let’s show a little love for the unionized food clerks, the building trades workers, those who toil in factories and shipyards, police officers, nurses, EMTs, teachers, city, state and county workers, federal workers, truck and bus drivers, custodians, mechanics, machinists, airline pilots and flight attendants; and let’s work together to strengthen the values we share.

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