As we celebrate 114 years of the organization of labor solidarity in our communities, the Greater New Haven Central Labor Council, we must understand the history of working and unemployed people in order to bring them into the forefront in the struggle against poverty and the fight for dignity, respect, and justice.

Labor Day Parade, 1960 PHOTO: Greater New Haven Labor History Assoc.

As we celebrate 114 years of the organization of labor solidarity in our communities, the Greater New Haven Central Labor Council, we must understand the history of working and unemployed people in order to bring them into the forefront in the struggle against poverty and the fight for dignity, respect, and justice.

In the New Haven area, we are fortunate to have a Labor History Association, led by Frank Annunziato and Central Labor Council Vice President, Nick Aiello. The Labor History Association assists all unions in the New Haven area to understand their own unique histories, as well as the general history of greater New Haven labor. It is important to understand that millions of people before us fought, sacrificed, were arrested and jailed, bled and cried. More importantly, they organized their co-workers, their neighbors, and their own families, by educating around the struggles for the rights of workers and issues involving their neighborhoods. They demanded jobs with living wages, health care, and fair treatment. They won the eighthour day, unemployment and workers' compensation, social security, low income housing, and the public school system.

Today, after over a decade of super-greed, the problems facing working and unemployed people continue to grow. While we are continuously told that the economy is turning around, profits are up, but massive layoffs continue and overall hiring remains stagnant. More than one-half of the new jobs created are part-time that pay poverty wages. For those with jobs, wages fail to keep up with inflation, and living standards plummet. In the last two decades, the disposable income of working class families has fallen by 25 percent.

The United States continues to suffer a depressingly high rate of unemployment. Over 25 million workers are without jobs or they are underemployed, desiring more hours which are unavailable. Many industries are permanently wiped out. Our city, New Haven, maintains the dubious distinction as one of the poorest communities in the entire nation.

In their enormous greed for maximizing profits, many corporations are rapidly moving to replace permanent full-time jobs with temporary labor. This tactic is deliberately designed to keep out or weaken unions, while paying low wages, with no or substandard fringe benefits. All workers have been hit across the board, with African-American, Latino, and other victims of discrimination suffering the hardest. Service, white collar, and public employees are now beginning to feel what many blue collar workers suffered in the 1980s.

The export of capital and jobs to low wage countnes has already cost U.S. workers over 10 million mostly high wage unionized jobs. Now NAFTA and GATT, adopted over the bitter opposition of organized labor, have greased the skids to make profiteering through the exportation of jobs even easier.

Workmen's Circle Band, New Haven Connecticut PHOTO: Greater New Haven Labor History Assoc.

In the 1930s, community-labor coalitions established the foundation upon which the CIO was built. The CIO responded to the call for jobs and justice. Its organizing helped establish the New Deal, and added 8 million jobs to the economy in the 1930s and 1940s. Yes, we can learn from that.

We envision a labor movement of the l990s and beyond that educates itself and develops hundreds of thousands of leaders at work sites who will form coalitions with activists from civil rights, environmental, feminist, neighborhood, peace groups, and other organizations to fight for jobs with living wages, universal health care, and affordable housing and child care, and to eradicate racism and sexism from every workplace and neighborhood.

We envision a labor movement that will encourage and assist union members, along with community leaders who are involved in the movement for progressive societal change, to run for elected office and to challenge those politicians who oppose the rights of workers and the unemployed. We can no longer accept the weak-kneed politicians who simply want to advance their own careers. Within the labor movement today, there is serious discussion about the formation of a Labor Party which could challenge the two other parties on behalf of re-creating the middle class dream for all Americans.

There are over 30,000 workers represented by unions in the Greater New Haven area. Just imagine their power, if we could activate each union and each member in this mission. Let's make the dream come true. Together, we will win.