Organized labor serves the nation (here is how)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/letters/all-potter.6565711sep01,0,1369491.story

September 1, 2008

This year, Labor Day takes on some new and important meaning. The middle class in America continues to take severe financial hits due to the housing crisis, fuel and food price increases, a lingering war, a health-care industry that is out of control and a monumental trade deficit with Communist China.

Since 1970, when OSHA act was passed, workplace safety and health conditions have improved. But with events like the Sago mine disaster, too many workers remain at risk. According to Liberty Mutual, the largest worker compensation insurance company, the direct cost of disabling workplace injuries is $48.3 billion.

Every day, 16 Americans die from injuries received on the job, yet the budget for OSHA has been dramatically slashed. Every 23 minutes a worker is fired for simply legally attempting to form a union.

Workers are finally standing up and saying, enough! In 2008, the AFL-CIO reported the first increase in union density in over two decades. When the Employee Free Choice Act is passed, union density will continue to rise.

Organized labor has been the one group that stands up to raise the minimum wage and to fight for the uninsured, yet most of our members enjoy some type of health insurance. Union members take care of the elderly in nursing homes. We fix your streets, protect your homes and families, build your automobiles, drive your buses and teach your children. We are organized labor, the folks who brought you the weekend.

Gregg J. Potter

Allentown

The writer is president of the Lehigh Valley Labor Council. Editor