by Tanya Gazdik
Source: www.mediapost.com, September 2024
It’s Labor Day in America and while many white collar workers are enjoying a day off from work, they have no plans to make it a habit.
“About 61% of working Americans are more afraid of retiring than of dying, and 64% fear retiring more than getting divorced, according to a national survey for LiveCareer in June,” reports USA Today. “About 20% of Americans ages 50 and older have no retirement savings, according to an AARP survey in January. It also found 61% are worried they won’t have enough money for retirement.”
Companies like General Motors must know this, as they push their workers to return to the office after a shift to work-from-home prompted by the pandemic. For starters, the automaker is revoking the “fully remote” status of about 100 white-collar workers and will now require them to come into the office at least three days a week.
“For some, the order will require relocating closer to an office,” the Detroit Free Press reports. “The employees impacted by this change include managers. They were notified of the new rule Friday, said two people familiar with the situation who asked to not be identified because they are not authorized to share the information publicly.”
Blue collar workers gathered for parades today in cities like Detroit and Pittsburgh, celebrating the gains and protections that being in a union has afforded them.
Indeed, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, said that everyone has the unions to thank for some of the privileges many of us enjoy.
“Everywhere I go, I tell people, ‘look you may not be a union member, you better thank a union member for the five-day work week, you better thank a union member for sick leave, you better thank a union member for paid leave, you better thank a union member for vacation time,’” Harris said in Detroit, according to The Hill. “When union wages go up, everybody’s wages go up. When union workplaces are safer, every workplace is safer. When unions are strong, America is strong.”
One group of unionized employees flexing its muscles is striking housekeepers and other hospitality workers — a workforce largely made up of women of color.
“More than 10,000 workers at 25 U.S. hotels were on strike Monday after choosing Labor Day weekend to amplify their demands for higher pay, fairer workloads and the reversal of COVID-era cuts,” according to The Associated Press. “ The UNITE HERE union, which represents the striking housekeepers and other hospitality workers, said 200 workers at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor were the latest to walk off the job. Nearly half of the striking workers – or 5,000 – are in Honolulu. Thousands of workers are also on strike in Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego and San Jose, California. The strikes targeting Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt hotels were set to last one to three days.”
