This coming weekend, we’ll celebrate the 128th American Labor Day — a holiday we now celebrate by spending time with friends and family, taking trips to the beach, having block parties and of course indulging in end-of-summer sales events.

It’s funny to think of how we spend this long weekend, given the holiday’s roots. After all, Labor Day was born of the American labor movement during the brutal age of the Industrial Revolution. It’s a day forged, literally, by the blood of workers fed up with corporate exploitation, and it’s recognized today to honor the sacrifices and solidarity of the laborers who risked their lives to protect the health, safety and dignity of the workers of the future. As a union man, I am indebted to and in awe of what those brave, ambitious and united workers did for guys like me and my fellow union members.

As cliché as it may seem, what better way is there to honor the efforts and sacrifices of the workers who fought for federal holidays, five-day work weeks, workplace safety laws, family benefits and child labor laws? At the beginning of every September, students, parents, families, friends and neighbors surround themselves with each other and enjoy the bounties of American freedom. I like to think that my union forebears would be pleased to know that over a century and a quarter have passed since their struggles, and still we’re reaping the fruits of the seeds they sowed.

SMART Local 100 is a union of sheet metal workers in Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia who work on everything from trains and planes to elevators and HVACs to scaffolding and skyscrapers. SMART — the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers — officially was chartered in 2013, but our roots extend to 1888 with the Tin, Sheet Iron, and Cornice Workers’ International Association. With a legacy that reaches back to the Industrial Revolution, SMART today represents over 200,000 workers nationwide, and I have the privilege of representing over 2,000 of them right here.

I’m proud to be a union man and union leader, and I’m proud of SMART 100. We care about quality construction because we live in the communities where we build. And we care about providing our members with dignified, sustainable lives. That’s why we fight to ensure fair wages, job safety, quality health care, pensions, training and more to support skilled sheet metal workers. It’s why we consider ourselves descendants of the workers who gave us Labor Day.

And, today, it feels like we are beginning a remarkable new chapter in the history of American labor. From Starbucks coffeehouses to Amazon warehouses to Trader Joe’s shops to major American newsrooms, a new era of worker solidarity and prosperity is beginning. And it’s important for us all to recognize the ways in which this benefits not only the workers on the ground floors, but all of us.

Labor Day is special because it means something to us all. We organize not just for ourselves, but for everybody around us, too — because we believe everybody is entitled to a dignified job that honors and rewards hard work and a meaningful life outside of work.

This Labor Day, enjoy your time with friends and family, but remember how we got this time to spend together – not to mention our nights, weekends, vacations and health care. None of these were given by employers. Unions fought for them, and Americans today enjoy them, regardless of their union status. That’s why young people today are clamoring to become union members, and why we welcome them.

The writer is the business manager and president of Sheet Metal Air Rail & Transportation Local 100, a union of sheet metal workers in Washington D.C, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

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