Unions lack the prestige they once had. AP Photo Charlie Neibergall
I will be the first to admit that I will not spend hours of my Labor Day weekend reading books on this history of unions or thinking about the tremendous sacrifices of labor movements in the past. Like most Americans most of my hours will be spent relaxing, watching football, and perhaps even having one last summer barbecue.
At the same time I think it useful to pause for a few minutes and remember how Labor Day came about. The History Channel video below reflects on a day when labor unions were actually oppressed by government in addition to big business. Labor Day was essentially given as a gift to unions to try and makeup for government oppression in the Pullman Strike.
Today of course unions do not suffer from the same persecution from government. In fact after years of struggle the unions finally won protection from the federal government in the form of laws like the National Labor Relations Act. Unions now have a powerful grip over many industries though some businesses like Wal-Mart have managed to exclude them from others. In addition is worth noting that unions are still effectively still outlawed in many areas.
Unions rightfully deserve some of the criticism they receive for incidents of violence by members and excessive protection sometimes afforded workers. Having said this, we must not forget that big business and government can be just as abusive if not more so than unions. A truly fair system I believe is the one envisioned by the NLRB in which both business and unions are forced to share power in determining worker wages and working conditions. Absolutely power corrupts absolutely whether in the hands of business or unions. If we forget the days before Labor Day when big business and government worked to oppress workers we will doom ourselves to bringing those dark times back in the future.
Comments
Nice, Ryan.
In our world of the present we still have the political/economic issue of whether we respect workers enough for a living wage. The minimum wage was enacted with union support for the purpose of an adult who worked full-time earning enough money to support a family of four. While we don’t want to encourage teenagers to make this amount of money, we’re right in the middle of the important question of compensation, which includes the issue of whether we’ll collectively choose health care for all.
And shifting the context further, we currently tolerate market/slave-level wages internationally. We could, if we so chose, embrace a global living wage. These important economic issues are controversial (literally causing talk from opposing views), but we only move forward through our intelligent engagement that you appropriately address in your article of how we can best celebrate and honor labor.
Alas, the free traders have spit in the face of our protectionist founding fathers on Mt.Rushmore to bust unions and troll the globe to exploit slave labor!
The cycle is being repeated as the 21rst century capitalist robber barons laugh all the way to the bank as they push trade deals with nationlistic nations who subsidize their industries as what's left of the American workers barbecue as our sovereignty burns!
"If free trade has been so good for our standard of living then WHY has high union wage and benefits paying G.M. been replaced by low wage non-union benefits skirting Wal-Mart as this nation's largest employer?" -Barbara Toncheff
OR
"A world power that loses its manufacturing capacity will cease to be a world power," Sen. Fritz Hollings stated in a long speech on the Senate floor in 2000, quoting from Akio Morita, the revered former chairman of Sony Corp.
We will be changing the name of our July 4th holiday as we depend on the rest of the world for survival!
Robert Moon is spamming The Activity Pit again: twi.cc/lAlq
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!