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By Doug Cunningham

As you share the Thanksgiving holiday with the warmth and comfort of family there are families whose breadwinners are walking the picket lines in America on this holiday weekend. From nurses in Appalachia to Broadway stagehands to TV writers these families are putting their homes and hearths on the line to hold the line for workers everywhere. Richard Bank is Director of the AFL-CIO’s Collective Bargaining Department. He says the 800 nurses striking Appalachia Regional Healthcare aren’t just on the picket lines for themselves.

[Bank]: “We need to hold the line here. They're holding the line on health care for everybody in their communities and by extension everybody in the United States. And if they can come out of this struggle as we all hope and expect they will with a fair and decent contract they will have struck a blow for everybody."

Bruce Cohen is a spokesman for the New York City’s striking stagehand’s union, who are fighting for their middle class livelihoods against owners of a billion dollar industry on Broadway.

[Cohen]: “These are skilled labor and this is a six day a week job and we work nights and weekends and we're never home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. And they want to pay us as if we were automobile workers, pay you for the hour you work and then when you're not needed send you home."

So as you go shopping this holiday weekend, remember these brothers and sisters standing up for working people. Donating a small amount of money to support these strikers is just a mouse click away.