[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 [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-19576]


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  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.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2021-19576
Filed 9-8-21; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3295-F1-P