ODESSA, Texas — Labor Day has always been a day to honor the workers across the country.
Monday was no exception here in the Permian Basin. One organization, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, held their annual speaking event at the Lawndale Community Center in Odessa to honor those workers.
Multiple keynote speakers spoke at the event and talked about a range of topics, from honoring workers in the community to talking about worker's rights.
Held for almost seventy years, the message is almost always the same: highlight the American workers and the workers here in the Permian Basin.
“What we're talking about mostly is American workers and we're gonna be honoring and trying to lift up the American worker," Dan Holbrook, the president of AFL-CIO, said. "There's 155 [million] Americans in the workforce. We want to honor those 155 million Americans.”
Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett took that a step further, highlighting everything that is done by Ector County's workforce and how that reflects back on the community.
"Labor Day is really about celebrating the middle class what, what really builds America, the labor and the hard work that took place out here, throughout the United States and especially here in the Permian Basin," Fawcett said. "I really think that it's important to reflect on the hard work that we do and especially in Ector County and servicing the entire oil and gas industry. We are the clock we're the clock work that keeps the clock ticking.”
ECISD Superintendent Scott Muri spoke at the event as a keynote speaker, and sees Labor Day as a way to stop and think about how the American workforce keeps the country going.
“It's always nice to kind of pause sometimes. I think it's a holiday and we forget the why behind it," Muri said. "So this event is a reminder that this is about the American worker this is about those that serve their communities, those that serve our country and indeed ensure its greatness."
The message was made very clear: celebrate the workers because it can be quite difficult to keep a community running if there aren't people putting in the time and effort to keep the community afloat.
“Folks out here work well above 40 hours a week. Everybody here in the Permian [Basin] at some point in time or another's worked well over sixty to seventy hours a week and really put in their labor," Fawcett said. "So to enjoy the fruits of their labor on a day like today is an important thing to do.”