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 year, we defeated Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempt to pass HB 1197, which was meant to crush organizing efforts by imposing unnecessary obstacles and red tape. We beat the big corporations trying to pass HB 943, which would have gutted local laws that help workers earn higher wages and better benefits. And we successfully advocated for positive changes that directly impact everyday people – like a new tax break for children’s diapers that I sponsored and was just passed into law.
And back home in Orlando, I have been honored to stand in solidarity with local Starbucks workers trying to form their own union and Central Florida farmworkers battling for basic workplace protections like access to shade, cool drinking water and 10-minute heat breaks every two hours.
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. Anna V. Eskamani