Submitted by Journal Staff on September 4, 2010 - 7:00am.
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To the editor,
Every September we take an opportunity to recognize working people and their contributions to our society. We recognize the people who built America’s great cities and the roads and rails that help us travel the country; we thank the people who teach our kids in school and take care of us in the hospitals; and we acknowledge the people who make the steel beams in our skyscrapers, the tires on our cars, and the paper in our textbooks and newspapers.
Working together through their Unions, working people also helped to shape our society. They won the weekend, the eight-hour day, public education, minimum wage, and important laws against discrimination in society and in the workplace. This weekend, United Steelworkers Local 159 wants to wish everyone a happy and safe Labor Day.
Here in our community, the Steelworkers are fighting to maintain stable family supporting jobs. Contract negotiations between the Steelworkers and Boise Inc. at paper mills across the country are ongoing. This round of bargaining, the stakes couldn’t be higher. We’re fighting to secure a pension plan that ensures a stable retirement so we won’t have to depend on our kids and grandkids to take care of us when we’re too old to work and we’re working to negotiate quality affordable health care for our families.
This Labor Day, as we recognize the workers who built this country, let’s also remember how important it is that we maintain good, secure, family-supporting jobs in our community.
Tim Wegner
Executive Vice President
USW Local 159
International Falls, MN
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