This Labor Day, 'Black Lives Matter' Means Justice for Black Workers

Every Labor Day, we celebrate the incredible contributions of the labor movement and working people to our nation's progress. This year, with 13.6 million workers currently unemployed and around one million new people applying for unemployment benefits each week, many working families have little to celebrate.

"While many Black workers have been deemed essential, our country continues to treat them like they're disposable--even as a national racial justice movement has declared that Black lives matter."

Millions of "essential" workers also get little or no paid sick leave or health coverage and consequently must choose between their health and their livelihoods. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the ways our current economy fails to meet the everyday needs of working people.

Black workers have been hardest hit by both the pandemic and its economic fallout. They are disproportionately more likely to lose their jobs as a result of the pandemic. And Black workers who are still working are more likely to be employed in low-wage essential service jobs, and are therefore more likely to face greater exposure to the virus than other groups.

Though they make up about one in nine workers overall, Black workers comprise about one in six of all front-line industry workers, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute. They are disproportionately represented in employment at grocery stores, public transit, warehouses, and child care.

This shows that, while many Black workers have been deemed essential, our country continues to treat them like they're disposable--even as a national racial justice movement has declared that Black lives matter.