Dear Friend,
I wanted to take a minute to share why Labor Day is not only important to our community but also important to me.
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 from colon cancer in 2004, my twin sister, Ida, and I would join her when she was working late-night shifts at Kmart to help her fold clothes and get her home at a decent time.
Labor Day is when we honor people like my Mom – and all workers across the country, so many of whom have fought for rights like a minimum wage, safer workplaces, 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.
My family story is 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, and pit them against each other with divisive and distracting culture wars.
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 greed, and when we all join together, organize and mobilize, we can accomplish anything.
Onward,
