This commentary is by Larry Moquin Jr., president of the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.  I’ve heard people say that when we work, we’re selling our labor. But I think it’s more than that.  I think that when we work, we’re selling our most precious commodity: time. We can’t con trol how much of it we have and when it will be up, but it’s everything: time for family, friends, hobbies, passions and for yourself. All too often we spend it working until we die.   This thought weighed heavily on me recently as I sat in a hospital room in Florida with my dad — a Marine, a Vietnam veteran and, at 79, a lifelong union laborer — who’s just beginning his fight with the cancer that will likely dictate what time he has left. His generation, and the generations before him, fought literally and figuratively for the rights that Americans and, specifically, American workers have relied on for decades. It was daunting to sit beside him, knowing that the sacrifices of his and past generations are being systematically dismantled and are at risk of being completely torn down.  Our basic rights are under attack almost daily. Just two years ago, a billionaire sending pink slips to federal employees would have sounded like the beginning of a “Twilight Zone” episode. But, in reality, that was just the beginning of a concerted campaign by both politicians and corporations to get U.S. workers back under the thumb of the wealthiest people in the world. I never thought that future generations of Americans would have fewer rights than I did growing up. But it’s happening right before our eyes. Reproductive rights, civil rights, voting rights and workers’ rights are all up for auction to the highest corporate bidder. For decades, corporate money has been used to influence politicians who gut labor protections across our country. These groups that lobby to cut workers’ rights only care about maximizing profits for the companies they represent.  Passing Proposal 3 is a guaranteed way to protect future generations of Vermont workers from out-of-state groups hoping to influence the Green Mountain State against working people.  There’s no rational argument against it, unless you stand to gain financially from the opportunities created when working people have fewer rights.  But Vermonters can fight back. At a time when corporations and the billionaire class have bought politicians and are attempting to sow anti-worker sentiments into our collective consciousness, Vermonters can protect themselves and generations to come.  READ MORE Proposal 3 would amend the Vermont Constitution to establish that employees have the right to organize or join a labor organization and collectively bargain over wages, hours, working conditions, economic welfare and workplace safety. It would also prevent laws from interfering with or diminishing that right.  This measure is about ensuring that workers who choose to organize have a fundamental right to do so and to have a voice in the workplace. It is about ensuring that a worker who believes their wages are unfair, their workplace is unsafe or their working conditions need to change can stand together with their co-workers and advocate for themselves. It protects the voice of workers on the job site and prevents rogue politicians from taking away workers’ rights.  I can’t give my dad more time. And while it’s easy to dwell on the injustice of this, I choose to see a life’s work worth fighting for. He has what every Vermonter deserves: Because of the collective bargaining agreements negotiated on his behalf, and his many years of hard work and service, he earned a livable wage, had premium healthcare and has enjoyed a well-deserved and dignified retirement.  When I was 20 and lacking any direction or anything resembling a life plan, my dad pulled up to our house in Winooski one afternoon and said, “Get in the truck, we’re going to work.” Now, more than 25 years later, as a proud second-generation member of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, I have the same protections he had.  Proposal 3 would give these same protections to future generations. Read the story on VTDigger here: Proposal 3 protects the rights earlier generations fought for. ...read more read less