As we roll through the Labor Day weekend, I recalled a bumper-sticker I saw a while back that’s stuck with me: “The Labor Movement: The Folks Who Brought you the Weekend.” Weekends and a whole lot more. Labor has been a presence in my life as long as I can remember.

I grew up in a union town in a union state. When he was a senior in high school in 1933 my dad wrote an essay in which he praised FDR and the labor movement because he knew they would stick up “for the little guy.” My police-officer mom, working vice out of Detroit’s First Precinct at 13th and Beaubien, was one of the earliest members (male or female) of the Detroit Police Officers Association, formed in 1944. The DPOA worked hard for their members, gaining hospitalization insurance in 1947 and a five-day work week in 1948. As for me, growing up in Michigan in the 1960s and 70s it would have been difficult to find somebody whose life hadn’t been improved by unions. I know many kids I went to school with whose college educations were made possible by the good union wages paid to their parents.

The labor movement has done a lot to improve life for everybody, union members or not. As we enjoy the Labor Day holiday, I invite my fellow Iowa Citians to take a minute and reflect upon just why we celebrate Labor Day. Whether it’s the five day work week, health care benefits, or decent wages, labor’s accomplishments are impressive and I say “Thanks! Keep up the good work!”