Labor Day is a time to honor the victories workers have fought for and won:
- The 8-hour workday, the 40-hour workweek, and the radical concept of weekends.
- Overtime pay, medical leave, and more recently, mandatory sick leave, so workers don’t have to choose between their health and their survival.
- Child labor laws and workplace safety standards, so kids are in classrooms instead of factories and workers make it home alive at the end of their shifts.
- The right to organize and form unions, so individual voices could become collective power… and win every protection on this list.
People literally fought with life and limb to hold the line in the fight for these rights. They were won with solidarity and action, and not just a really good argument. This day is also a reminder that people power, our collective power, can win, even against powerful monopolists.
But here in Oregon, one of the most basic needs—a place to live—is still out of reach for too many working families. The numbers are staggering:
- A worker needs to earn $33.02/hour to afford a modest two-bedroom rental.
- Minimum wage workers would need to clock 88 hours every week just to make rent.
The power of organized labor has been slipping in our country for years, and there’s a direct line between that slippage and the increasing impossibility of affording the most basic needs.
We know the solution isn’t charity—it’s power. And we’re building it the same way unions always have: together.
Neighborhood Partnerships, through the Housing Alliance, leads a growing housing justice movement in Oregon: Renters, organizers, front-line workers, public officials, and advocates come together to turn individual struggle into collective strength. That’s how we won over $1 billion in state housing investments this year. That’s how we’ll win what’s next.
This Labor Day, we’re asking you to stand with us. Make a gift of $33—a symbolic stand for the housing wage workers should be earning.