By MICHAEL WOOLF
As many Americans are saying goodbye to summer and enjoying one last vacation this Labor Day, another reality demands our attention.
From actors and writers, to UPS and hotel workers, this summer has indeed shaped up to be a hot labor summer — a term coined by Lorena Gonzalez, executive secretary of the California Labor Federation, to denote a sense of growing momentum for the labor movement.
According to a recent Gallup poll, labor unions are enjoying their highest levels of national national support since 1965. One major reason for renewed labor organizing is the COVID-19 pandemic, as workers started to ask whether a new future for work was possible in the midst of the pandemic. Some of the demands that laborers were making then are still being made now: increased pay, safer working conditions, and flexible schedules. In the U.S., the federal minimum wage is still a paltry $7.25 per hour. Federal minimum wage has not increased since July 2009 but if it had been keeping up with inflation, it would be over $21 an hour today.