Laborers need to vote for those who put workers first

Labor Day is more than just picnics and parades. It is a day to honor America’s working people. In the face of the apocalyptic-style pandemic, it is important now more than ever to take this year’s holiday to uplift political candidates who put America’s workers first.

We see firsthand the devastation caused by politicians who put profit before people. That ugly picture includes 180,000-plus dead and stubborn government recalcitrance.

Four months ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Heroes Act. It is a comprehensive covid-19 relief bill. It will provide meaningful extended unemployment insurance benefits, hazard pay, an emergency infectious disease standard, money for the U.S. Postal Service and money for safety measures to allow schools to open safely.

Right now that bill sits untouched on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk as the Senate has pushed the pause button and gone on an unconscionably extended holiday through mid- September. Meanwhile, working families continue to suffer.

Working people deserve real relief, not more pause buttons. The Northwest Arkansas Central Labor Council recently donated $1,000 to the NWA Food Bank. With 40 to 50 million Americans out of work, we decided to take our finger off the pause button.

This November it is critical that our members and their families get to the ballot box by whatever is the safest method. Arkansas allows covid-19 concerns to be a valid reason to absentee vote; use it and cast your vote.

The Northwest Arkansas Central Labor Council urges our members and like-minded people to vote for Celeste Williams for Congress and Joe Biden for President.

We feel certain that Ms. Williams would not have voted against supplying the U.S. Postal Service needed resources to continue to deliver veterans their drugs, seniors their Social Security payments, and our votes to the ballot box. A vote for Joe Biden is simply a vote to end our national nightmare.

The labor movement has responded to covid-19 with passion, dedication and community effort, fighting nonstop for worker’s protections despite the abject failure of action from our federal government. Just imagine what we can accomplish with an ally in the White House and a nurse in the House!

By electing folks who will fight for America’s working class and uplift the labor movement, we can make real progress in the fight for a fair economy and a just society free from fearmongering and hatred.

This Labor Day the NWA Central Labor Council urges all to be safe, wear a mask and prepare to vote as if your life depended upon it.