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- Commentary: Labor's Day -- and Yours
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- Dick Meister
There are many reasons to honor unions on Labor Day. Despite their declining membership and arguments among themselvers over organized labor's future direction, they remain extraordinarily important to all working people, union and non-union members alike.
Paid holidays such as Labor Day, paid vacations, the eight-hour workday and 40-hour workweek, overtime pay, empl;oyer-financed pensions, medical care and other fringe benefits, health and safety standards, the right to bargain collectively with employers, a truly effective voice in politics -- working people owe all that, and more, to the labor movement.
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Piece Description
There are many reasons to honor unions on Labor Day. Despite their declining membership and arguments among themselvers over organized labor's future direction, they remain extraordinarily important to all working people, union and non-union members alike. Paid holidays such as Labor Day, paid vacations, the eight-hour workday and 40-hour workweek, overtime pay, empl;oyer-financed pensions, medical care and other fringe benefits, health and safety standards, the right to bargain collectively with employers, a truly effective voice in politics -- working people owe all that, and more, to the labor movement.
Broadcast History
Never before broadcast.
Transcript
It’s Labor Day again. Time again for politicians and union supporters to praise organized labor. Time again for others to pontificate about the supposed decline and growing irrelevance of unions as they continue to lose members and continue to argue among themselves over the future direction of the labor movement. And it’s time for most other people to as usual ignore the Labor Day messages -- pro and con -- as they mark the end of summer with yet another three-day weekend.
But we should all consider this while enjoying the Labor Day holiday: There would not be any three day weekends if it were not for labor unions. None.
If unions had not done what they did -- and continue to do -- it’s highly unlikely that anyone outside the executive ranks would be getting a paid holiday on Labor Day or any other day. Or even, of course, that there would be such a holiday as Labor Day...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
Intro: Commentator Dick Meister says we owe a lot to organized labor.
Outro: Dick Meister is a veteran journalist.
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Tripp Sommer
Posted on August 14, 2005 at 03:37 PM | Permalink
Review of Commentary: Labor's Day -- and Yours
Here's comes Labor Day. Whaddaya gonna run on your station? Dick Meister offers up a combination of historical perspective and present relevance of Labor Day and the influence of unions.
His delivery in straightfoward and, at 3:20, the length of this commentary is right in range.