LA Labor Movement Celebrates Juneteenth

Today, the Labor Movement joins millions across our country in celebrating Juneteenth and commemorating the official freeing of the last enslaved people in the United States.

Juneteenth is especially poignant and takes on a renewed sense of purpose this year. Millions of people have taken to the streets demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless other unarmed Black people that have lost their lives. Though these murders sparked a global mobilization, the underlying problem has existed for centuries.

While slavery may have been abolished over 150 years ago, its horrendous legacy lives on through institutional systemic racism, causing mass incarceration, police brutality, and the countless killings of people in Black communities throughout the U.S.

Evidence of this can be seen in our current economy with the continued exploitation of Black labor. Massive wage discrepancies are prevalent throughout our country, with a wage and wealth gap that only grows over time. Currently, Black workers on average make 26.5% less than white workers. Even with advanced degrees, Black workers continue to make significantly less than their white counterparts.

Although explicit slavery was abolished in 1865, a clause in the 13th Amendment allows involuntary servitude for prisoners as a punishment for crime, incentivizing a new form of exploitation: prison labor. Both public and private sector employers take advantage of this, with thousands of Black inmates doing the work of our union members for pennies on the dollar. Alongside firefighters, thousands of incarcerated people put their lives on the line to stop California’s wildfires and protect our lives for dollars a day in pay. This is absolutely unacceptable.

So as we celebrate, let us use today to redouble our commitment as a movement to stop all racism, explicit or implicit. The Los Angeles Labor Movement calls on Congress to make Juneteenth a federal holiday to memorialize the end of slavery.