00:00In the United States, SATETS, unionized workers are marching on Labor Day and protesting against economic measures that have affected
00:10the lower classes.
00:11From Boston, our colleague Dan Albright has more details.
00:16Unionized workers are marching through Boston this Labor Day for the second annual Labor Day parade, at a moment of
00:22contradiction for organized labor in the United States.
00:31A new Gallup poll finds 71 percent of Americans approve of labor unions, and a record 47 percent say unions
00:39should have more influence.
00:40But only 10 percent of U.S. wage and salary workers belong to a union.
00:45That's about half the rate of the early 1980s.
00:48And in the private sector, union membership is below 6 percent.
00:52We've looked at about 50 years of a betrayal by the political class and the creeping neoliberalism and financialization of
01:07our economy.
01:08We are in a country that for years has made it more difficult for workers to join a union.
01:13We have an administration who's going after federal workers, you know, gutting budgets.
01:19They're breaking contracts.
01:21And so I think, sadly, we have an environment where people are actively trying to stop people from joining a
01:28union.
01:28The Trump administration has moved to strip collective bargaining rights from large parts of the federal workforce,
01:35while Republican appointees now control the National Labor Relations Board.
01:40So this Labor Day, the question is no longer whether unions are popular with the American public,
01:45but why that support has yet to translate into power for workers in the workplace.
01:52There are those of us who are not just sitting down, taking what billionaires are doing, letting democracy get destroyed.
01:58It shows that the people who keep Boston and cities like Boston running are strong,
02:04and we are willing to stand up and fight for our right and keep democracy alive.
02:08Dan Albright, Telesur, Boston.
