Thank you for your work,
your dedication and your commitment to the children and people you serve.
Labor Day means many
things to many people—back to school, the end of summer, a needed respite from
the daily grind. For us, as working people and union members, Labor Day stands
for something special and profound.
It’s a day to honor the
deep commitment each of us has to serve the children we teach, the families we
heal and the communities we love. It’s a day to reflect on the values we hold
dear—that every American should have access to a good job that can support a
family, with access to affordable healthcare; that every child should be able
to attend a high-quality public school in their neighborhood; that college
should not be a luxury for the few but should be affordable for all; and that
we should be able to retire with dignity after a lifetime of hard work, without
worrying that we’ll be a burden to our loved ones.
Working people built this
country—we did it together—brick by brick, school by school, town by town.
Through these collective efforts, we built the middle class, each generation
did a little better than the one before, we advanced the ideals of equality and
justice, and we expanded opportunity for all.
The work you do builds on
this foundation. Your work has value. It should be respected and honored, not
just on Labor Day but every day.
Too many of us feel that
the American dream we built is slipping further and further away. And with just
7 percent of our private sector colleagues in unions, we have seen growing
wealth and wage inequality, and as a result, growing frustration and angst. At
the same time, too many politicians and elites demean and disrespect our work
while budget cuts and calls for austerity make it harder to provide
high-quality services.
And no wonder. An unholy
alliance of corporate interests and politicians—intent on slashing budgets and
then blaming us for the harmful results, while at the same time finding ways to
finance tax cuts for wealthy donors—continue to double down on efforts to
polarize and divide us: parent against teacher, union member against nonunion
member. Because if we stand divided, they stand to profit.
This is our new normal.
And our union is meeting
this moment with a new vision of unionism: solution-driven unionism. It’s an
approach that is relevant and appropriate to the 21st century. An approach that
is creative and visionary. An approach that advances solutions that unite the
people we represent and those we serve—our students, our families and our
communities.
We must bring people
together around agendas that serve all kids, all workers and all communities—to
restore the middle class, strengthen our public schools, and invest in, not
destabilize, communities.
We must counter
polarization and anger with ideas and innovation. It’s what AFT members and
leaders are focused on across the nation.
•
It’s why we’re advancing a Quality Education
Agenda that offers specific proposals to create a
first-class public education system for all children in America. And why we are
attacking the fixation on testing in this country with a grass-roots campaign
to get back to teaching and learning.
•
It’s why we worked with an innovative corporation
to develop a digital filing cabinet of lesson plans and ideas for teachers
called Share My Lesson. It’s a
commonsense solution to help teachers who are being asked to do so much more
with diminishing resources and without the supports they need.
•
It’s why we are mitigating the impact that poverty
and other out-of-school factors have on students in places like
Cincinnati, by partnering with the community to offer health
and mental health services, meal programs, tutoring, counseling, after-school
programs and other wraparound services.
•
It’s why in one of America’s very poorest regions,
we are leading a coalition of businesses, community groups and educators to
completely transform the educational and economic opportunities available to
children and families in McDowell County, W.Va.
•
It’s what we were able to accomplish this past year in Ohio—linking
with the community to stop Gov. John Kasich’s efforts to strip working people
of their voice.
Because when we—the
dedicated members of the American Federation of Teachers and other union
members—propose solutions, it’s harder to demonize us, harder to cut vital
services, and harder to divide us from the people we serve.
The best solutions come
from you. It is your ideas that will strengthen our schools, hospitals and
communities. Just as with the generations before us, it is your work and
commitment that will propel economic and educational opportunity and social
justice. Visit http://go.aft.org/solutions to share
your solutions and ideas.
Our ability to advance
these solutions depends on electing leaders who believe in public education as
a pathway to our future; who believe that public employees and healthcare
professionals provide essential services and must be treated fairly; and who
believe that working people and their families are entitled to a voice in their
destiny and a pathway to fairness, dignity and respect. The November elections
will determine the future of our nation; this is a defining moment to stand up
for our values and our vision for America.
I know that, together, we
can turn a time of frustration and uncertainty into a time of action and
promise.
I thank you for the work
you do each and every day—through good times and bad—to serve your communities
and imagine a better future for our nation. That is solution-driven unionism.
And together we can turn our values into reality.
Have a safe and happy
Labor Day.
In unity,
Randi
Weingarten
AFT President
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