Labor Day Message

This labor day is different. This labor day is special. For me its not just a long weekend, no longer just the end of summer, no longer just the beginning of a new school year. For the nurses of Backus hospital labor day this year has a new meaning. We started a year ago with an idea, if we stood together we could improve our hospital and our community. We faced an administration that opposed us and one of the best union busting law firms in the country, and we prevailed. Now we sit at the negotiation table as equals. We are the Backus Federation of Nurses. We are united and strong. We have a message, We are here to help. We will improve our hospital and our community because they are OURS. We will negotiate a contract that will make Backus the type of hospital where nurses want to work. We are ready to reach out to our community as we recently did with our food drive. AFT president Randi Weingarten said in her Labor Day message: "We will continue our work to forge new bonds—and strengthen long-standing ones—between labor and community. Because only together will we be able to chart a course where America believes and acts as if its best days are ahead of us, not behind us." My brothers and sisters of the Backus Federation of Nurses, of the other locals of AFT CT, of AFT nation wide, of the AFL-CIO, of the entire labor movement; our best days are ahead of us. We are limited only by our ability to believe! Happy Labor Day.