Everyone loves a good #TBT but there are also so many forward-thinking campaigns worth highlighting in the labor movement! Yesterday we celebrated the legendary Cesar Chavez for #ThrowBackThursday and today we’re dedicating our first #ForwardFriday to Jennifer Muir with the Orange County Employees Association (OCEA).  Muir wrote an opinion piece for the Orange County Register today that will hit home for many working people in California who are fed up with a system that is rigged against us.

Muir explains:

“We all see ideological battles play out in Washington and in Sacramento, where ideological gridlock is commonplace. No matter which side we’re on, most of us feel the same frustration and disgust.”

Fortunately there’s a new opportunity for workers in Orange County to have a voice in the OC Register and show their neighbors that in spite of everything they may have read about the labor movement in the past, unions are workers standing together.

Muir writes:

These pages have not always been welcoming to working people. In my current job, I have spent many Sunday mornings irritated about the newspaper’s take on unions – organizations comprised of honest people who work hard to make a decent living for their families.

But in recent years, the Register has opened space where working men and women can provide new perspectives. And now, they’ve invited us to share views about working families in a weekly opinion column.

Here’s to the OC Register for giving workers a voice in their community newspaper and the chance to set the record straight! Muir wasted no time in the first piece of the series:

Over the years, nurses, public safety officers, child abuse workers, veterans’ advocates and other OCEA members have joined together to ensure all working families in our community are treated fairly and the community receives vital services.

Their sacrifices – and the sacrifices of workers across America – gave us protections we often take for granted: Weekends. Breaks. A 40-hour work week. The right to spend time at home with a newborn.

Today, these rights are slipping away for too many workers because some corporations, banks and their lobbyists have created a system that promotes increasing executive bonuses and bottom lines. Meanwhile, the workers who play the most important in role in their success barely make ends meet.

The only obstacle that stands in the way of this social erosion is the same thing that stood in its way in our grandparents’ generation: Working people standing together, bargaining together and using our strength in numbers to counter corporate strength in dollars.

Happy #ForwardFriday! Looking forward to many more workers’ voices in the OC Register!