"HAPPY LABOR DAY"

Happy Labor Day!
Namaste to those union workers who still work 40 hours a week, eight hours a day, lunch time and during their break periods. This also allows us time to remember my mother and father who were fighters and recipients of civil and human rights that so many of us take for granted.
My grandfathers were railroad workers during the 1929 strike.
I (Minerva) can remember the stories that my maternal grandmother told me the short summer in 1996 and I will cherish our brief walks and long talks through the Pensacola Mall. She also shared with my cousin and me how she, a Porache Creek Indian, went to school to learn how to “balance a book on her head, sew while her braids were tied to wall wire, and ask for permission to go to the bathroom”. Back then, there were no 40-hour work weeks, eight hours days, lunch and breaks.
What amazes me still are those that wish us to return to a system when these concessions did not exist. I thank a society that will allow us twelve weeks to care of our immediate family members with an assurance our jobs will still be their when we return. I thank the many heroes and sheroes before us whose shoulders we can stand on. What is so sad, are those employers whose greed, selfishness, and inability to see beyond their “capitalistic gains” don’t allow them to realize that love of family, country, and having a morale standard is more important than anything money can buy.
We believe it our responsibility to keep the fight ongoing, even if we don’t work for a union.
Minerva Leah Williams, Vice President and Event Planning
The Democratic Club of the Santa Clarita Valley