Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday called for rebuilding the American labor movement and implementing other progressive policies in an essay he penned to coincide with the Labor Day holiday.
“Our job is to bring our people together around a progressive agenda that works for all, and not just the few,” Sanders wrote in an essay posted on Medium. “Our job is to create an economy based on human needs, not the greed of the billionaire class.”
Sanders said that Labor Day is a time for people to “pledge our continuing support to protect workers’ rights which have been under fire for decades.” He added that it should be easier for people to join labor unions.
“It is not a coincidence that the decline of the American middle class virtually mirrors the rapid decline in union membership,” he wrote. “As workers lose their seat at the negotiating table, the share of national income going to middle class workers has gone down, while the percentage of income going to the very wealthy has gone up.”
The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and potential 2020 presidential contender also urged lawmakers to make wealthy individuals and corporations pay their “fair share” in taxes, raise the minimum wage, invest in infrastructure and establish a single-payer health care system.
{mosads}”Today, on Labor Day, we must recommit ourselves to bringing all working people together in the fight for a just and humane world,” Sanders wrote.
Sanders is spending Labor Day giving addresses in New Hampshire and Vermont. At an event hosted by the New Hampshire AFL-CIO, Sanders spoke out against President Trump’s reported decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that helps people who came to the U.S. illegally as children, according to the Associated Press.