Celebrating Labor Day with Our Labor Caucus Chair Gerald Sale

Today, it's Labor Day in Arkansas! It's time to celebrate the victories of the Labor movement- and we have many victories to celebrate.

We ended the national child labor epidemic, where 6 and 7-year-olds used to toil in perilous mines and unsafe factories. We established the 8-hour workday. We successfully lobbied for the first-ever minimum wage laws, but our work is far from over.

And let's not forget what led to the creation of Labor Day. As a proud member of the Organized Labor Movement, with a background in Rail Labor, I can trace my roots back to the Pullman Strike of 1894. The embodiment of the movement remains the same, with the same willingness to stand up for others and demand equity and respect for the dignity of labor.

The 1894 Pullman Strike and Railroad Rebellion comprised an estimated 250,000 workers. Just as we are witnessing today, the Government sided with corporations over workers during an economic crisis caused by tariffs and Wall Street speculation. U.S. troops were dispatched to protect corporate interests in a decision that would cost an estimated 70 people their lives. Six days after the strike ended, President Grover Cleveland and Congress designated Labor Day as a federal holiday in an effort to appease organized labor. But the fight for higher wages and better working conditions is far from over.

In Arkansas, the average CEO makes 476 times more than the average worker (AFL-CIO). According to the Economic Policy Institute, CEO compensation has increased by 1,085% since 1978, while typical worker pay has risen by just 24%.

There's nothing that those CEOs want more than for us to be divided, fighting amongst each other. We can't let that happen.

Arkansas has been a right-to-work state for nearly 80 years, yet it still ranks at or near the bottom in most economic indicators. Arkansas is ranked 30th in equality, 35th in business environment, 39th in access to healthcare, 48th in economic opportunity, and is the 44th-ranked state overall (U.S. and World News). It's long past time to start asking when right-to-work will become the economic driver that was promised, and when is it better to let a politician decide if a worker needs a Union instead of the worker themselves. These are the very same politicians who zealously tout the power of the free market while simultaneously failing to allow the labor market to remain free.

Every Arkansan can agree that if you work a full-time job, you should be able to live with dignity. Labor organizers believe that, workers believe that, and Arkansas Democrats are fighting to achieve that.

Unfortunately, here in Arkansas, we have witnessed the erosion of labor safeguards, including the weakening of child labor protections. Our current federal delegation's average rating from the AFL-CIO is less than 15%. This means they are supporting working people less than 15% of the time. It's time that Arkansans ask who they are helping the other 85% of the time.

Today, on this Labor Day and every day after, we must ask ourselves, has the right-to-work law, the weakening of child labor laws, and constantly re-electing the same politicians who fail to vote for working people 85% of the time, going to make Arkansas move up on the abysmal state rankings listed earlier?

We're gonna have to fight to right these wrongs and rerail this train - but the labor movement is no stranger to hard work.

Will today be the beginning of the end for the injustices inflicted by the current status quo?

If we've got the will to fight together, we can win better pay, more protections for workers, and a better Arkansas- together.

Power to the unions. Power to the workers. Power to the people.

Celebrate Labor Day! Enjoy the holiday weekend and rest up for our fight ahead. You've earned it.

In solidarity,
Gerald Sale
Arkansas Democrats Labor Caucus Chair & President of the Arkansas AFL-CIO