Dear Friend,
I’m the daughter of working-class immigrants, of parents who had to work multiple minimum-wage jobs just to make ends meet. Before my Mom passed away to cancer in 2004, my twin sister, Ida, and I would sometimes join her when she was working shifts at Kmart to help her fold clothes and get home at a decent time.
Labor Day is a day when we honor people like my Mom – and all workers around the country, so many of whom have collectively fought for rights like a minimum wage, safer workspaces, 40-hour workweeks and two-day weekends.
Whether we belong to a union in our workplace or not, we all owe a debt of gratitude to the workers whose efforts have helped make us all safer and more prosperous.
These issues are deeply personal to me. It’s why I fight for the rights of workers every day in Tallahassee – and against the big corporations and bought-out politicians who cynically try to stop working people from building collective power by pitting them against each other with divisive and distracting culture wars.
Just this past legislative session, Florida Republicans passed and Governor DeSantis signed into law one of the worst anti-worker bills in Florida history. This law specifically targets our public workers, and makes it incredibly difficult to maintain a union due to the arbitrary membership requirements and administrative burdens. This law is being litigated right now, and you can see my debate against it below.
I know we still have so much work to do, both in Florida and across the country. But I also know that people power is stronger than corporate power – and when we all join together, organize and mobilize, we can accomplish anything.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful Labor Day!
Onward,
Rep. Eskamani