Labor History Month, 1995

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Part IV

The President

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Proclamation 6801--Labor History Month, 1995

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Title 3--
The President
Proclamation 6801 of May 17, 1995

Labor History Month, 1995

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Among the most insistent themes in the history of
American democracy has been the determination of our
workers to find dignity in their work and meaning in
their citizenship. The labor movement has long given
voice to these aspirations. American trade unionists
have fought for and achieved benefits for all of us by
strengthening citizens' roles in the workplace and by
expanding their participation in the political lives of
their communities.

Gone is the time when the average American worker made
about ten dollars for a 60-hour week, and more than 2
million children worked similarly long hours for even
less pay. The national labor movement has helped ensure
safe working conditions, regular hours, decent living
wages, and paid holidays and vacations. And in 1993 we
moved a step further, affording hard-working Americans
the right to emergency family leave.

Workers have been leaders in the efforts to establish
the 8-hour day, the 40-hour week, security in
unemployment and old age, protection for the sick and
injured and for children, equal employment opportunity,
and health and safety standards. And the labor movement
has strived to make public education available for
every child. American workers have helped to make this
progress possible, and our country is immeasurably
stronger because of it.

As we observe Labor History Month this year, we
understand that our work is not yet finished. Today's
global marketplace demands that we establish and
strengthen partnerships between employers and unions,
cooperate to achieve safe, high-performance work
environments, improve the skills of American workers
and the competitiveness of American businesses, and
further enhance human dignity in the workplace. The
challenges we face are many, but the history of our
accomplishments assures us that the future looks bright
indeed.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim May 1995, as ``Labor History
Month.'' I call upon the people of the United States to
observe this period with appropriate programs,
ceremonies, and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and nineteenth.