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News & Commentary

September 4, 2017

Sharon Block

Sharon Block is a Professor of Practice and the Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School.

As a Labor Day gift for OnLabor readers, we’ve compiled Labor Day editorials and op-eds from around the country. While this list below isn’t exhaustive, it is representative of the Labor Day topics that our nation’s newspapers and media outlets are covering this year. A few observations:It is hard to be optimistic this Labor Day. The overwhelming majority of opinion writers warn that American workers are still struggling this far into the recovery from the Great Recession.

  • President Trump comes under a great deal of criticism on today’s opinion pages for not living up to his campaign promises to American workers and for adopting policy that hurt middle and lower income workers.
  • A couple of high profile writers – Rich Trumka and Sheryl Sandberg – focused on the need for paid leave.
  • Many fast food workers have op-eds across the country amplifying the Fight for $15 message.
  • Many writers issued calls for new thinking about labor law reform. (We’ll have more on this theme in an upcoming OnLabor post.)
  • Most creative – a call by David Weil to rename Labor Day as Inequality Day.

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