NFFE Local 1998 wishes a “Happy Juneteenth!” to all of our members, and their friends and families, and to all Americans!

Juneteenth became a Federal holiday in 2021 thanks to an Act of Congress signed into law by President Biden.

However, Juneteenth has been celebrated since June 19, 1865. That is the day that U.S. (Union) Army troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, which had freed all enslaved people in Confederate states. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect on January 1, 1863, it could not be enforced in Confederate-controlled areas, and enslavers in Texas—far from the Civil War’s front lines—had collaborated for years to keep the Emancipation Proclamation a secret from the people they enslaved. So when 2,000 U.S. Army troops arrived in Galveston and began to enforce the freeing of the approximately 250,000 enslaved people in Texas, this was cause for huge celebration, and the celebration came to be known as “Juneteenth.”

Juneteenth has also been called “Freedom Day,” and “America’s second Independence Day.” It has been an important holiday in the African American community for 159 years, and has recently become more widely known, particularly since it became a Federal holiday.

NFFE Local 1998 celebrates Juneteenth.  We celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), which freed millions of Americans enslaved in Confederate States, and the 13th Amendment (1865), which banned slavery nationwide.  We celebrate the progress—painfully slow though it has been—towards treating all people in the U.S.A. with dignity and respect for their human rights, and the civil rights heroes–those known and those unknown–who worked so hard to make it happen.  And we celebrate those who continue to work hard to further advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility!

A Note About Slavery In Modern Times:

All workers deserve to be treated with respect, to have safe working conditions, to be paid fairly, and to have the choice of where they are willing to work.  Slavery is the antithesis—the exact opposite—of everything that union members believe in.

Sadly, slavery did not end in 1865.  It continues to this day in forms such as state-sanctioned legal forced prison labor, and illegal sweatshop labor, forced commercial sexual exploitation, and human trafficking.  The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that there are currently 28 million people (adults and children) enslaved/subject to forced labor worldwide, whereas Walk Free’s Global Slavery Index puts the number at 50 million.  The ILO estimates that $236 billion U.S. dollars of illegal profits are generated from the work of forced laborers worldwide each year. Some estimates are much higher.

The ILO’s 2024 report, Profits and Poverty: The economics of forced labour, revealed that worldwide “An estimated 6.3 million people were in situations of forced commercial sexual exploitation on any given day in 2021. Gender is a key determining factor: nearly four out of every five (78 per cent) people trapped in these situations are girls or women. Children account for one in four (27 per cent) of the total cases.”  In the U.S., “more than half of the victims identified in all new criminal human trafficking cases in 2021 were children, including sex trafficking cases where they accounted for 66 per cent of victims,” according to The 2021 Federal Human Trafficking Report.

All forms of slavery and forced labor are devastating human rights abuses, and sometimes people feel hopeless that their actions could help solve such a major worldwide issue.  But there are things that each person can do to help chip away at this enormous global problem.

One thing you can do is to avoid buying products made with child labor or other forced labor, and The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) keeps a list of such products, which you can view on the U.S. Department of Labor website, here: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods.  Another way is to support legislation to protect workers and to combat forced labor, human trafficking, and forced commercial sexual exploitation.

Being a member of a trade union is another way to do your part to protect the rights of workers (including yourself), both in your workplace, and outside of it. The stronger unions are, the stronger protections are for all workers in a state or country, and worldwide, and union members are much less likely to face pay disparity based on their race or gender.

Once again, NFFE Local 1998 would like to wish everyone a Happy Juneteenth!

Today is a day to feel happiness for the joyous time in U.S. history when hundreds of thousands of Black Americans learned that they were finally being freed from slavery.  Perhaps it is also a day to reflect on what we can do to help free children and adults who remain in bondage in modern times.

Happy Juneteenth, everyone!

SOURCES
To learn more about Juneteenth, the outlawing of slavery in the U.S., modern day slavery/forced labor, and how unions work to combat it, visit these sites:

The National Museum of African American History and Culture:
https://nmaahc.si.edu/juneteenth
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth

June 17, 2021: Remarks by President Biden at Signing of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/06/17/remarks-by-president-biden-at-signing-of-the-juneteenth-national-independence-day-act/

A Proclamation on Juneteenth Day of Observance, 2024:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/06/18/a-proclamation-on-juneteenth-day-of-observance-2024/

The Emancipation Proclamation:
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation

The 13th Amendment:
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/13th-amendment

Modern Day Slavery/Forced Labor:
https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers
https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/#the-scale
https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/country-studies/united-states/
https://www.ilo.org/topics/forced-labour-modern-slavery-and-trafficking-persons
https://www.ilo.org/publications/major-publications/profits-and-poverty-economics-forced-labour
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods

Unions Work to Combat Slavery/Forced Labor:
https://www.goiam.org/news/departments/hq/trade-and-globalization/ilo-online-trade-globalization/international-day-for-the-abolition-of-slavery/
https://globalmarch.org/never-work-alone-trade-unions-and-civil-society-fighting-against-slavery-and-trafficking/
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/how-unions-are-crucial-for-building-working-class-economic-power/
https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-and-well-being/