Labor Day this year has so much meaning to so many of us. Within a year, we have read papers attacking teachers and public employees. Some states like Wisconsin, Ohio and New Jersey tried to take away public employees right to bargain collectively, so we rallied around that and wore We Are One stickers and some of us even hit the streets to show our support. 

We applauded the TSA for organizing their union, We passed the Move Over and Call Center Bills to protect jobs and increase workplace safety in Albany and passed Article Ten, to create more green energy jobs and support energy creation. 

Our service men and women got Osama, but we lost hundreds of 9-11 response workers as a result of occupational illnesses. We also witnessed, participated and shared in the anxiety at one of the largest private sector strikes in recent history, as 50,000 communications workers went on strike to hold the line on the middle class. The fight continues, but the message was sent that union members and working families have had enough, and anyone who works for a living deserves a fair wage for an honest day of work. 

Its been a long tough year, but aren't we even more proud to be union this Labor Day Weekend? Labor Day and the theory and concept of a weekend is an idea that took organized labor decades to achieve and our movement has fought and died for hundreds of years to attain everything we have. Some take it for granted, but we know that our very existence provides hope to the millions who want what we have. So God Bless our union, and this Labor Day Weekend, have a chat with someone who is not in a union. 

Because it is our duty to remind them of Labor Day's true meaning.