Pleased Labor Day!
The famed adage to contact for solidarity, “an damage to a single is an injury to all,” is most usually used by labor unions in periods of struggle, like a hazardous or unfair apply by the manager or throughout strike. These moments of wrestle have been happening across the place. My own residence condition of Minnesota saw the Minneapolis Federation of Academics and Education Assistance Professionals strike final spring for advancements to superior meet the desires of learners and reinforce their professions and the Minnesota Nurses Association Is on the verge of a strike 15,000 MNA members powerful for far better individual care. These unions, and these the AFL-CIO detect on their national strike map, have seen accidents on the task, from actual physical injuries that may possibly come from unsafe staffing in a healthcare facility to hurt large course measurements, trainer shortages, and disrespectful pay out for paraprofessionals do to educating and discovering. Unions, like these, see that “an injury to 1 is an injuries to all” wraps up both of those affected individual and nurse, or educator, university student, and family—the kind of prevalent superior bargaining the Shanker Institute continues to guidance.
Even so, the exhilaration and get the job done for progress is not just coming from these extra legacy unions as everyone with any familiarity with Starbucks, Amazon, Trader Joe’s, or REI is aware. Workers at these corporations join workers who generate for online and print publications, technological know-how staff, and much more in building a new strength about the ideal to a collective voice at get the job done, with extra than “an injury to 1 is an damage to all” in intellect. The unparalleled up to date attractiveness of labor unions, implies that far more personnel acknowledge the truth in a common refrain from the late Minnesota US Senator Paul Wellstone, that “we all do much better when we all do much better.”
As the 2022 Gallup poll measuring the acceptance of unions at 71% grew once again from the 2021 Gallup poll, which had unions at 68%, this electrical power and effort and hard work to “all do better when we all do better” demonstrates no signal of slowing down. We at the Shanker Institute are in this article for it. Considering that our founding, a core precedence of the Albert Shanker Institute has been to improve and fortify the contributions of unions—and create public assistance for their necessary function in a democratic society—as businesses that give staff a voice, carry dwelling requirements, improve the top quality of the establishments they provide and present the ideal system for functioning persons to strengthen the items they make and the solutions they provide.
We will proceed to amplify the voices, tales, and collective power of functioning people as a result of the perform we do.
In Solidarity,
-the ASI Workforce
