EAST MOLINE, Ill. — As attention grows on union disputes across the country, lawmakers and local union members talk worker's rights on Labor Day.
Rock Island County Democrats hosted their annual picnic at the Mid-America Carpenter's Regional Council union location in East Moline. Members of several unions were at the event, including Justin Lott. "Right now, I'm very pleased with more people wanting unions, more people joining unions," he said.
Lott is from branch 318 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, which is a union for poster workers from USPS. His branch represents Moline, East Moline, Aledo, Silvis, Geneseo, and Morrison. "This is a place that we can talk to our representatives to try and get things passed," he said.
Lott wants postal workers to have the option of putting part-time hours towards retirement, when the worker becomes full-time—a right they don't have yet.
"You'd be able to buy back that time, it'd be a set amount that you pay—that way you don't have to work those extra years that you've already worked to retire," Lott explained.
Illinois State Sen. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island, said he wants to help protect union workers and union elections through new laws. "What we're here for today is to show folks that when you try to form a union, you are the employees sticking together and exerting that power with the company," he said. "You are ready to bargain collectively, so that the company can't pick you off one at a time."
The discussion comes as public support for labor unions is at its highest point since 1965, according to the U.S. Treasury.
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