Our annual Roosevelt-Humphrey Day Dinner honors heroes of the labor movement for their contributions to the life of the American worker. The preservation of the right to organize. Unions have historically been the agent of change in improving American working conditions, and will continue to be for some time to come. However, corporations continue to find loopholes to keep workers from unionizing and bargaining collectively for better working conditions. The right to organize is essential to the American democratic system.
Unemployment causes severe economic problems.
Anyone who wants to work should be able to work, without having potential jobs shipped overseas by multinational corporations seeking ever lower wages and poorer worker protections. Full employment means jobs for all and more funds for social security and basic government programs. Health care coverage for all workers. As it stands, there are millions of uninsured American workers. The system as is does not do enough to protect the health and well-being of the average American, and employers are not always obligated to pay their share of the burden.