Honoring and Protecting our Frontline Workers

 

This Labor Day, We Honor Our Frontline Workers and Vow To Do Better Over the course of the last six months, the coronavirus pandemic has shone a bright light on who our essential workers are -- our bus drivers, teachers, nurses, janitors, airline workers, and post office employees.  Our frontline workers have risked their health and safety throughout this public health emergency to make our society run, and today we celebrate and thank them for their sacrifice.  This Labor Day, we recommit ourselves to providing the protections and support that working families need to make it through this crisis. That means hazard pay and paid sick leave. That means a living wage and guaranteed health care. That means a federal agenda that prioritizes child care and collective bargaining rights. That's why I have stood in solidarity with striking Battery Wharf Hotel workers to demand fair wages and with the Massachusetts Nurses Association at Leominster and Providence Hospitals. It's why I have fought with SEIU workers for hazard pay, walked the picket line with Teamsters Local 25 for better wages and benefits, and why I have stood with garment workers at Brooks Brothers in Haverhill to ensure proper severance and health care. My father was a local union leader. John Markey worked hard. He always told us that the whole reason a middle class exists in this country is that we had unions, that they were the key.  That’s why I will always fight for collective bargaining rights, because they have been, and will always be the building blocks of the middle class. Collective bargaining is a non-negotiable right.   I ran for office to give a voice to all the people in the blue-collar neighborhood where I grew up. My father used to tell us that you can't just beg for your rights, you have to organize and take them. This Labor Day, we know who we’re fighting for, we are unafraid to use our power, and when we stand in solidarity, we win.   -  Ed Markey

The Markey Committee · 275 Grove St · Auburndale, MA 02466-2272 · USA