Chair's Corner

With International Workers Day this Thursday, we commemorate workers, in every field and endeavor, from the factory floor to the farm, and from the nursing home to the government building. In America, a worker dies on the job every 99 minutes. That’s 14 workers per day who leave their homes to go to their jobs and never return. By the way, Donald Trump cut the number of people who investigate workplace deaths and injuries, which means these tragedies will only continue and likely increase.

We need to ensure workers are protected and we need to emphasize opportunity for all workers. We can best honor our workers by reducing the massive income inequality in America which can be done in two ways: 1.) tax policies that force the super wealthy to pay their fair share… including the same percentage of their income on Social Security and Medicare that all the rest of us pay and 2.) More Union jobs! Unions and their workers have been vital to reducing income inequality by raising the pay for people at the bottom rungs of the ladder.

And speaking of ladders, here’s how I describe today’s Republican party. They climb the ladder of success, and in the cases of many of them, like Trump and Musk, they get to start higher on that ladder than the rest of us, because their daddies gave them a ton of shady money. Then, when they get to the top of the ladder and turn to look down to see their fellow climbers, what do they do? They pull the ladder up. They’ve spent their whole lives taking and taking so they’re not about to help us now.

Democrats need to put the ladder back down and make the billionaires pay for it.

Dave