Presidential Document2021-19576
Labor Day, 2021
Primary source
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Published
September 9, 2021
Signed
September 3, 2021
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 172 (Thursday, September 9, 2021)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 172 (Thursday, September 9, 2021)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 50437-50438]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2021-19576]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 172 / Thursday, September 9, 2021 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 50437]]
Proclamation 10250 of September 3, 2021
Labor Day, 2021
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
My father taught me from a young age that a job is
about much more than a paycheck. It is about dignity,
respect, and your place in the community. It is about
being able to look your children in the eye and assure
them that things are going to be okay. When Americans
go to work each day, they are not just making a
living--they are pursuing a life with hope for the
future. In doing so, they build, drive, care for, and
grow our Nation.
Hard-working Americans are the backbone of our country.
As I have often said, the middle class built America--
and unions built the middle class. Everything that
supports a sustainable middle-class life was made
possible by unions, and on Labor Day we honor all those
workers--and their enduring movement--that keep our
economy moving and make our Nation strong.
I believe that every worker deserves not only a fair
wage and benefits--but freedom from discrimination, a
safe and healthy workplace, and the respect that comes
with a secure retirement as well. That is why my
Administration always stands proudly with workers. It
is why, in the American Rescue Plan, we gave working
people a break--helping workers weather the pandemic,
giving middle-class families raising children a
historic tax cut, and upholding the promise of a
dignified retirement by protecting the hard-earned
pensions of millions of American workers and retirees.
It is also why I am committed to ensuring that all
workers have a free and fair opportunity to organize a
union and bargain collectively with their employers.
This has been a guiding principle of our Nation since
union organizing was explicitly encouraged by the
National Labor Relations Act in 1935. But for far too
long, that principle has been attacked and neglected.
American workers should make their own decisions--free
from coercion and intimidation--about organizing with
their co-workers to have a stronger voice in their
workplaces, their communities, and their government.
That is why I strongly support the Protecting the Right
to Organize Act and the Public Service Freedom to
Negotiate Act. It is also why I created the Task Force
on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, and asked Vice
President Kamala Harris and Secretary of Labor Martin
Walsh to serve as its chair and vice chair.
After more than a year in which essential workers made
extraordinary sacrifices and carried our Nation on
their backs, this Labor Day we see more clearly than
ever that we must build an economy that responds to the
needs and aspirations of working people--an economy
that deals everyone in and brings everyone along. The
pandemic has also exacerbated and revealed for all to
see the places where our Nation has fallen short of its
promise to deliver equal opportunity to workers of
color and their communities. To help address that long-
standing challenge, my Administration is pursuing a
comprehensive approach to advancing equity, as
illustrated in the Executive Order I signed on my first
day in office entitled Advancing Racial Equity and
Support for Underserved Communities.
Despite the tremendous progress we have made to advance
labor protections and strengthen the voice of workers
in the workplace, there is still much more we need to
do. As in every generation since Labor Day was first
[[Page 50438]]
celebrated in the late 19th century, there are still
those who resist Americans' efforts to build and
sustain worker power--the engine of our economic
growth, the key to our long-term success, and the best
defense against corporate abuses of power in
workplaces, our economy, and our democracy. Over the
years, the Labor Movement has won many battles:
establishing the 40-hour work week, integrating
workplaces, eliminating child labor, securing health
and safety protections for workers, and countless other
victories. Workers and their unions prevailed time and
time again--but the work continues. We are going to
keep fighting to restore power to working families and
protect the rights of hard-working Americans and
unions. That includes seizing the golden opportunity
ahead of us to make the largest investment in nearly a
century in American infrastructure, American workers,
and good union jobs through the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
On this Labor Day, we honor the pioneers who stood up
for the dignity of working people--leaders like
C[eacute]sar Ch[aacute]vez, the Reverend Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., A. Phillip Randolph, John L. Lewis,
Samuel Gompers, Frances Perkins, and many more. Let us
also remember the tireless voices for working families
that we have recently lost, including my friend Richard
Trumka. We must recommit ourselves to advancing the
historic progress these trailblazers made as we work to
deliver a decent life with security, respect, and
dignity for all.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 6,
2021, as Labor Day. I call upon all public officials
and people of the United States to observe this day
with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities
that honor the energy and innovation of working
Americans.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
third day of September, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
sixth.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2021-19576
Filed 9-8-21; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3295-F1-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on September 9, 2021.
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