{"id":7662,"date":"2025-08-05T14:03:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T18:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=7662"},"modified":"2025-08-20T14:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T18:26:08","slug":"retirees-in-action-we-must-educate-members-and-the-public-on-the-value-of-the-labor-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-43-no-7\/retirees-in-action-we-must-educate-members-and-the-public-on-the-value-of-the-labor-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"RETIREES IN ACTION: We must educate members and the public on the value of the labor movement\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PEFSeptember 8, 2025 —<\/em> I spent 33 years working for the New York State Department of Corrections (now the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS) where I learned the importance of a union and the value of uniting in a workplace. Without unions, workers have very few protections from abusive employers. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe today\u2019s younger generations take many of our hard-fought gains for granted. Unions today are under continuous assault from the current federal government because unions are one of the few remaining pillars of our democracy. Unions are fighting back in the streets and in the courts, but unfortunately many union members have no idea about the consequences of an anti-union movement backed by a hostile White House. Unions need to educate themselves and their members to better fight the anti-union agenda in today\u2019s America. <\/span>The history of the American labor movement needs to be taught in every school in this land.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica is a living testimonial to what free men and women organized into free democratic trade unions can do to make a better life, we ought to be proud of it,\u201d said Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1977.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a poll by Hart Research, 54% of adults said they know just a little or don\u2019t know much about unions. They said their chief sources of knowledge were personal experience (37%), people in unions (26%) and the media (25%). Significantly, learning about unions in school was not even mentioned.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The implications of these numbers are clear. To a very large degree, Americans are uninformed or misinformed about the labor movement and the role that workers have played, and continue to play, in our nation\u2019s economic, political and cultural life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Academic standards and curriculum resources, such as textbooks, have historically ignored or been deficient in their treatment of workers and the labor movement. Significantly, there are teachers who want to cover this history in their classrooms, but there has been no place for them to easily find materials. Until now!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The mission of the <\/span>American Study Center<\/span><\/a> is to inform teachers about the rich and varied curriculum resources available to integrate into lessons. I recently learned of the American Labor Studies Center at the annual New York State Alliance for Retired Americans conference. It has been my experience that the next generation of American workers have a little or no knowledge of our labor history and our struggles to win hard-fought gains which benefit every American worker in today\u2019s workforce, as well as our retirees who enjoy the hard-earned benefits of our labor.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unions built the middle class, and the middle class drives the economy! Retirees know this because when we organize and work together, we enable our local chapters to show their strength, and we know how to maintain economic security, health, and the middle class. Protecting the things for which our union fought requires all of us pulling together. Retirees understand this because it\u2019s how we helped build the union. We need to rise up and organize in support of our friends (union endorsed candidates) in the November elections.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We may love or hate politics, but they are an integral part of our lives. It is necessary to do what we can to keep and improve our situation as retirees. We ask that you stay engaged and informed, whatever your affiliation may be. This will be a pivotal year with each of us having the obligation to vote in November. Ask yourself which side you are on: Corporations and a billionaire class or Unions and a middle class?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We just celebrated Labor Day. Before it became a federal holiday, Labor Day was organized by labor activists and individual states. After municipal ordinances were passed in 1885 and 1886, a movement developed to secure state legislation. New York was the first state to introduce a bill, but Oregon was the first to pass a law, recognizing Labor Day on Feb. 21, 1887. In 1887, four more states, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, passed laws creating a Labor Day holiday. By the end of the decade, Connecticut, Nebraska and Pennsylvania followed suit.\u00a0 By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1984, Congress passed an act making the first Monday of September of each year a legal holiday.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember, when we vote our labor values we help secure a more prosperous future – unless we fail to educate ourselves!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Solidarity Forever,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jim Carr<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 8, 2025 — I spent 33 years working for the New York State Department of Corrections (now the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS) where I learned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"division":[],"allowed_regions":[],"allowed_divisions":[],"class_list":["post-7662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","issue-volume-43-no-7"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRETIREES IN ACTION: We must educate members and the public on the value of the labor movement\u00a0 - PEF Communicator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-43-no-7\/retirees-in-action-we-must-educate-members-and-the-public-on-the-value-of-the-labor-movement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RETIREES IN ACTION: We must educate members and the public on the value of the labor movement\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 8, 2025 — I spent 33 years working for the New York State Department of Corrections (now the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, or DOCCS) where I learned...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-43-no-7\/retirees-in-action-we-must-educate-members-and-the-public-on-the-value-of-the-labor-movement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PEF Communicator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-05T18:03:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-20T18:26:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/01\/PEF_Retirees.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ccanham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ccanham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-43-no-7\\\/retirees-in-action-we-must-educate-members-and-the-public-on-the-value-of-the-labor-movement\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-43-no-7\\\/retirees-in-action-we-must-educate-members-and-the-public-on-the-value-of-the-labor-movement\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ccanham\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0677b03b1fcdadfe00f4e905b97b90e4\"},\"headline\":\"RETIREES IN ACTION: We must educate members and the public on the value of the labor movement\u00a0\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-05T18:03:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-20T18:26:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-43-no-7\\\/retirees-in-action-we-must-educate-members-and-the-public-on-the-value-of-the-labor-movement\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":749,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-43-no-7\\\/retirees-in-action-we-must-educate-members-and-the-public-on-the-value-of-the-labor-movement\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/PEF_Retirees.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-43-no-7\\\/retirees-in-action-we-must-educate-members-and-the-public-on-the-value-of-the-labor-movement\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-43-no-7\\\/retirees-in-action-we-must-educate-members-and-the-public-on-the-value-of-the-labor-movement\\\/\",\"name\":\"RETIREES IN ACTION: We must educate members and the public on the value of the labor movement\u00a0 - 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