By:nyc.gov

Sisters, Brothers, and Friends,

Labor Day weekend is our chance to celebrate the people who built New York City and continue to keep it running every day. It is also a moment to recommit ourselves to the values that have always guided the Labor Movement: solidarity and dignity for all who work.

Working people have often been told that our goals were out of reach. Shorter hours were once dismissed as impossible. Demands for safer workplaces were brushed aside. But time and again, workers stood together and turned those demands into rights. That same spirit is alive today as more people are organizing, striking, and raising their voices for justice. Public support for unions is higher than it has been in decades, with more than 70 percent of Americans saying they want workers to have the freedom, fairness, and security that comes with a union.

Here in New York City, that energy is visible in every borough and across every industry. Workers are organizing new shops, negotiating contracts that raise standards, and showing that collective action can create a better future. Each campaign is an act of hope, grounded in the belief that every worker deserves a voice on the job and a fair return for their labor.

Next Saturday, we’ll gather on Fifth Avenue for the New York City Labor Day Parade and March, the nation’s oldest and largest Labor Day celebration. We are honored to be led by Co-Grand Marshals Rich Maroko, President of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, AFL-CIO, and Terri Carmichael Jackson, Executive Director of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association. Tens of thousands of union members and families will fill the avenue, joined by allies and supporters, to show the enduring strength of solidarity.

No matter who you are or what work you do in this City, whether in a classroom or a clinic, on a construction site or behind a desk, every worker deserves to be valued and respected. Your labor sustains us, and we thank you for all that you do.

This weekend, I hope you take time to rest, to reflect, and to honor the generations of working people who came before us. And I hope that we’ll see you out there next Saturday as Fifth Avenue once again belongs to Labor.

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