To many Americans, Labor Day is the last of the major summer holidays – a day to celebrate outdoors. But unlike Memorial Day or the Fourth of July, there is little fanfare or celebration about the roots of the Labor Day holiday or what it commemorates.

Labor Day is not only a day dedicated to picnics and backyard barbeques.

Labor Day is a day to pay tribute to the American worker, whose hard work built this nation and made it what it is today.

Hard work built America – but labor unions united it.

The union I’m a part of, the State Employees’ Association, was founded in March 1940, when 29 state employees met at the Eagle Hotel on Main Street in Concord. By the following year, our membership grew to 425 individuals – or about 20 percent of the state workforce.

Seventy-seven years later, SEA/SEIU Local 1984 (as we’re now known) represents more than 12,000 members across the Granite State.

Here in New Hampshire, our union – alongside others – has worked for seven decades to help strengthen the working class. We’ve won fights for health care, better wages, workplace rights and safety standards, and most recently, defeated so-called right-to-work legislation.

Labor Day reminds us that we need unions.

This January it was revealed Americans have the most favorable view of unions they’d had in a decade. It’s not hard to see why – we’re the last stronghold for the middle class.

It’s been proven union workers receive better wages, benefits and better working conditions than non-union workers. The middle class earns more in states with higher levels of union membership.

Unions act as a buffer against rising income inequality in the United States.

I have been a union member for nearly 20 years. I first became active as a union steward, helping members navigate through contract violations and union activities. From there, I served on the SEA/SEIU Local 1984 board of directors and eventually was elected president.

Together, we make a difference. While I was working at the New Hampshire Liquor Commission, the department decided to privatize one of our warehouses. Despite being promised their jobs would be safe, warehouse workers soon discovered they would be replaced. Together, we met with management and demanded those who worked in the warehouse keep their jobs. Through our collective efforts, the management reversed course – saving multiple jobs in the process.

A few weeks later, I was approached by a man on the street. Even though I didn’t know who he was, he thanked me for being his union steward and saving his job in the warehouse. As I pointed out to him, it was our strength in unity that paved the way for our success.

The individuals who make up SEA/SEIU Local 1984 make me proud to be a union member. I’m inspired by their dedication to service and their commitment to fight for their fellow workers. It’s this attitude of collective action, of helping your neighbor, that built this country.

I’m proud to be a part of an amazing group that makes New Hampshire work.

Which is why this Labor Day, while you’re celebrating with friends and family, I urge you to remember why this day exists. This Labor Day, I urge you to remember America needs workers to come together – and we need unions.

(Rich Gulla is president of the State Employees’ Association/SEIU Local 1984.)