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What Happened to Labor Day?
A young person asked me not long ago -- only half in jest -- whether Labor Day was named in honor of natural childbirth.
Most young people today have no memory of a time when Walter Reuther of the UAW and John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers were household names, when presidents jawboned labor to prevent agreements from causing wage-price inflation, when productivity gains pushed wages up, and when more than a third of the American workforce was unionized.
Now fewer than 8 percent of America's private sector workers are in unions, median wage gains have fallen far behind productivity gains, and for most of us Labor Day means a long weekend.
What happened? Some say it started in the early 80s after Ronald Reagan fired the nation's air-traffic controllers for striking - something they had no legal right to do - and thereby legitimized a wave of corporate union busting. Others blame it on a more pervasive " greed is good " aggressiveness that engulfed corporate suites starting right about then.
There's no question that,ever since, and with ever greater alacrity, companies have fired workers for trying to form unions, even though that's illegal, and have used or threatened to use permanent replacements if workers go on strike - which is legal but was rare before the 80s.
But don't blame Ronald Reagan or corporate greed. Blame us - you and me. You see, starting about 30 years ago and with increasing efficiency, technologies have given us consumers a world of choice - low priced goods and services that often depend on low wages here and elsewhere.
Four-lane federal highways and long-haul trucks linking non-unionized manufacturers in the South to the rest of us. Container ships and cargo planes linking us to foreign producers. Big-box retailers using computers to find the best deals anywhere around the world. And now the Internet letting us find the best deals for ourselves from anywhere, too.
In other words, we as a nation have traded off lower priced goods and services, in place of a unionized workforce with the bargaining clout to get higher wages. So now, a lot of us get good consumer deals and lousy paychecks.
No one trumpeted this choice. It's happened gradually. But is it the right choice? That's what we ought to be asking ourselves - at least once a year, on Labor Day.
Robert Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written ten books, including The Work of Nations, which has been translated into 22 languages; the best-sellers The Future of Success and Locked in the Cabinet, and his most recent book, Reason. His articles have appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Mr. Reich is co-founding editor of The American Prospect magazine.
33 Comments so far
Show AllWell Bob, it was you, not me (or "us") who as Clinton's Labor Secratary was questioning whether "unions had any place in the new economy".
So stop trying deflect responsibility. It was you who signed off on union killing trade agreements like NAFTA, not us.
We, joined by the whole of the labor movement and the overwhelming majority of the Democratic caucus opposed them.
This effort to rewrite history is as unseemly as it is cynical.
What happened to Labor Day?
The Taft-Hartley Act, (1946)
The gutting of the authority of the NLRB to intervene in disputes.(60's and 70's)
Continuos corporate anti-democratic propaganda and lies. (1945-present day)(note the small "d" you who are politically sensitive)
Finally with respect to the flood of cheap imported goods the treasonouos trade agreements negotiated by every administration since and including Nixon.
When the legions of traitors and treasonists are rounded up for the guillotine Carla Hills and other US "Trade Representatives" should be near the top of the list of those to be executed.
It started when the labor movement sold its soul to the Democratic party and subordinated the class struggle to electing politicians. Labor is our true power--the bosses need us to make their profits, but we don't need them.
Long weekend my ass...Most people I know have to work. My husband is a Union Electrician here in Florida and he gets the day off, WITHOUT pay...Unions have been gutted and yes we get cheap trinkets in return. The problem is, only trinkets have gotten cheaper, everything else has gone up, up and away! Insurance? Skyrocketed. Taxes on my property? Skyrocketed! Groceries? Skyrocketed. Gasoline to get to my lowpaying job? Skyrocketed. Hmmmm, maybe those dang Unions were a good idea...
long weekend my ass.....yes.... there are the people the work in grocery store, drug stores, newspapers, restaurants, gas stations that make reich's long weekend possible. reich, you need to get in contact with the real working world!
Robert Reich - What Happened To Labor Day -
Yup. You point out some good evidence there. Right on! I've read 2 or 3 articles like this recently. You are pointing out how we as people DO actually drive the society we have. Yup. And we do buy into the best deals for ourselves. You betcha.
He he he. And we get to see what it gets us. We greedily listen to someone pass themselves off as a dependable someone and vote them into office - hoping they really will make things better. See what it gets ya! Ho ho ho.
Our society will change when the average person votes for someone based on their willingness to admit limited abilities, rather than for someone who promises more and more progress.
We have to be realistic. People serve for a limited time. They can do limited things. They can't do unlimited things. Which do you prefer? Which sounds better to you?
We know now what happens when you let your wanting more and more dependable people running a more and more dependable world full of more and more dependable things. It Sucks!
Who has the sense of humor to realize It Sucks because of our wanting to have Dependable People tell us what to do? There are no Dependable People! Just some people who are willing to pose as being dependable - for as long as we pay them!
Of course, what do I know? I only seem to have a limited grasp of the subject.
Sharon Smith's "Subterranean Fire" provides a closer look at how the unions were de-radicalized. May Day is THE international workers' holiday, commemmorating the Haymarket martyrs; having the protests on May 1 also linkned the struggle for workers' rights with the anti-clerical struggle, something that the Church in America managed to cut off. "Look, see, we're for your rights, just don't join those commies and socialists!"
"This effort to rewrite history is as unseemly as it is cynical."
Reich also promotes the quintessentially capitalist view that he can't help it if the people make bad choices -- as if they weren't herded & prodded constantly in the direction that their rulers want them to go, while concealing all the outside manipulations of labor forces in non-Anglo & non-European countries to get things into US stores -- on the pretext that US workers will benefit from oppression elsewhere.
The DLC and all its employees are . . . well, we know what they are. . ..
Another problem that brought down U.S. private sector unions was their Cold War mentality.
The AFL-CIO worked with the CIA and USAID to help destabilize and destroy Leftist and Liberal governments throughout the Third World. In fact, the AFL-CIO squandered so much of its personnel and resources on overseas interventions (in tandem with U.S. agencies), it was known as the AFL-CIA.
I remember writing several letters to the more radical St. Louis, MO Teamster newspaper about the above antics of the AFL-CIO.
I basically stated that if the largerst union helped bust peasant unions, land redistribution schemes, and other progressive agricultural programs/policies, the result would be massive movements of peasants from the land to city.
In return, these newly arrived city folk would need jobs since they didn't produce their own food and other needed resources.
HOwever, if they controlled their land, and were represented by cooperatives and protected by sympathetic governments, they would be less hooked on consumerism.
As we know, millions (soon to be billions) moved from the country side to cities and became prime cheap labor markets for multinational corporations.
That was when the migration of factory jobs went South (of the border)
The Cold War was partially an attempt to expand the pool of desperate people needing employment and to expand the market in cheap, unprotected land, minerals and other important resources.
So, the AFL-CIO hung itself with the rope offered it by the U.S. ruling class. They wanted to be part of big business, big government and big military. Instead, after use, they were discarded and became small labor.
Their erstwhile pals started using the same methods used on progressive Third World countries...on them.
Very insightful, Balakirev. You dare lay out the construct to a blinded and braiwashed American worker. I first thought there was a disconnect 30 years ago, when I heard a construction worker refuse to consider that he was "working class," and insisted that he was part of the middle class.
Europeans have a long intellectual tradition that understands this dialectic. Lead a few workers by continually offering them some baubles of consumption, and you own them; you have created the both the "drug" and the addict.
It was Reich's boss Bill Clinton who, shortly after becoming president pushed NAFTA through without even feigning an attempt to incorporate environmental, or health and safety standards into NAFTA. NAFTA subsequently allowed the US to dump subsidized corn in Mexico just long enough to put the Mexican corn farmers out of business. Those corn farmers are now in the US hanging drywall, laying carpet, installing granite countertops, etc., thereby driving down the wages of American crafts and trades people.
As long as the unions continue to send money to the Democrats without requiring anything in return, the Democrats will not help the working class.
NAFTA was Oldbush's baby. Another leftover like Somalia when Clinton assumed the position.
Nafta began in earnest in December 1992 when then-US President Bush, Mexican President Salinas and Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in three separate ceremonies in each nation's capital.
...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1250181.stm
But, but, but...Clinton, Clinton.
STFU already!
Nice post Balakirev. What do you think about incorporating We the People into a large, rich and powerful for profit corporation where the adminstration represents US instead of the Halliburtons and where we are equal shareholders of non-transferable stock?
The reasons unions have all but vanished is A) government/corporate collusion combined with decades of negative union "reporting" by the MSM, contrary to what RR might think, and B) the fact that all the "good" jobs are gone, and the average worker now spends less than three years in their dead-end position, hardly enough time to enjoy union protections, and most couldn't afford the dues anyway.
As a former member of the Teamsters, IATSE and the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union, I can tell that once your quarterlies are paid, you're on your own. Every few years the unions give away more and more to management, the word "strike" has become verboten, and union leadership continue the practice of paying themselves way too much while their rosters struggle to fill 40 hrs.
The flight of the blue collar to the suburbs also helped undermine unions - where once there was a "company town" where the majority of employees worked, lived, played - and organized together, now they were spread apart to the point where even hosting an organizing meeting was impossible.
Anyone in the US today gets blasted by tons of anti-union propaganda. If you've been around unions personally, you might know some of the benefits.
But if you watch TV or movies in the US, labor unions are almost always given a negative portrayal. The leaders are corrupt, they just get in the way of doing business, etc, etc.
Because of that, almost anyone you talk to who hasn't been around a labor union has a very negative image of unions. I couldn't even begin to talk about a union where I work because all the people I work with have this very negative image of a union and their immediate reaction is along the lines of "yuck, why would we want a union?"
Of course, when you find you aren't just taking what pay raises the company reluctantly doles out? Or when you find that your supervisors can't just arbitrarily treat you like shit when you can go get the union involved to protect you, then you start to realize maybe why they could be handy to have around. But very few Americans think of that because all they know is the last 60 years of negative brainwashing that's been done on the topic of labor unions.
For some Labor Day inspiration, I'd recommend watching "The Wobblies." For a review:
http://www.docurama.com/productdetail.html?productid=NV-NVG-9794
It's a shame that great American homegrown radicals like Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Joe Hill and Big Bill Haywood--as well as Eugene V. Debs, Mother Jones and others--have been written out of our history books, and that no one seems to use the phrase "wage slavery" anymore--although far too many of us know EXACTLY what it means.
Let's celebrate our rich heritage of American radicalism this Labor day. Then let's try to re-invigorate it!
Join in the battle
Wherein no man can fail
For who so fadeth and dieth
Yet his deed shall still prevail
William Morris
http://folk.ntnu.no/makarov/temporary_url_20060919zkkfg/internationale-en-sheffield_socialist_choir_1992.mp3
The idea of labor unions in young America came with the European workers imergrating to this country. The capitalist revolution was brutal in those countries therefore it was natural and instinctive for workers to be class conscious. Their holiday was May Day but later was replaced by Labor Day where capitalist politicians gave speeches about the generousity of the capitalists giving workers jobs and phony union leaders chiming in with the slogan, "capital and labor are brothers."
In the beginning, workers formed unions with representation from the bottom up, not from the top down like it has been later for many year up to now. P-9 in Austin, Minnesota is a classic example. The union went on strike and the national union president ordered them back to work. They refused and were decertified by the national union. Homes were lost, families were split by divorce, even suicides and almost all were replaced by workers from the depressed south at a much lower pay.
The taconite workers in the Minnesota iron range were working a lot of overtime without knowing that the union leaders informed the companies of an impending strike. When the strike came, the company had nary a worry to supply their costomers, they had huge stockpiles accumulated by having workers work overtime. Needless to say, the company outlasted the miners who had no stockpile to pay the mortage payments.
Here is the Website of a union that advocate unionism control from the bottom up like it originally was. It has no leaders, only instructors who point the way for other workers to form real unions based on a common principle to produce for use instead of profite for the filthy rich capitalist class.
http://socialismmarxdeleonforarealunion.org/index.html
"Labor and capital have nothing in common."
------------------------------------------
"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." Lincoln's First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.
It may be you, Mr. Reich, but it's not me. I'd prefer to buy goods made by American workers who earned a living wage. I don't buy the cheap crap they sell at Walmart.
What about reinstating tariffs on imports--protectionism? Abolishing Nafta and GATT?
What about spending taxpayer dollars on our own infrastructure, health care, and educational systems, instead of squandering $10 billion a month on Iraq?
We are an impatient society anymore.
We have been successfully brainwashed and anesthetised.
They (Corporations) have unlocked the human psyche and have exploited it for their own purposes.
We have continually been told that WE control the markets... and perhaps sometime.. just sometimes that is true.. however, I feel that we are the ones being controlled.
If you study Buddhism for any length of time you might come to an understanding about the concept of ATTACHMENT.
and the concepts of the mind and the frailties of the human mind with regards to desire, and pain and fear and anger.
If we learned to conrol those more we would perhaps be more immune to the attacks from Corporations like Walmart and other that dazzle us with junk... and "low low prices".
We would QUIT being mindless zombie and get OFF our asses and realise that our stuff SHOULD NOT OWN US....
and that while aesthetics is a fine quality... and yes... treating ourselves well on occassion is acceptable.. Falling into the trap that we NEED cheap stuff to fill up our homes.. that we NEED mindless entertainment to keep us happy... We are escaping from a terrifying reality that we have relenquished all control over.
Thus our workers get paid crap... folks fall prey to predatory lending and promises of baubles and dreams ...
Yet we have lost the glue that has, for centuries held civilization together (or maybe I am being too idealistic)
We have forgotten how to communicate and truly work with each other. We have forgotten how to SHARE, we have forgotten how to be empathetic...
We have forgotten how to resist falling to temptation of immediate gratification.
Time will be here long after we are gone.... Our lives are short .. we somehow realise this and feel we must cram in so much into our tiny lives. Accumulate wealth with abandon.... we have so little time.... you see. WE must all be millionairs and billionairs and have massive success fame and fortune by the age of 40!
Those are the dreams promised to us.
All in exchange for our souls....
Peace
Namaste
"Be ashamed to die until you have Won some Victory for humanity" - Horace Man, First President of Antioch College.
The plight of workers in the United States is one of my chief concerns. I voted for Nader as opposed to voting for either Bush or Gore because he was the only candidate saying anything about the working class. I knew it was a lost cause but it was the only way I could voice my opinion.
When we would drive our daughter to college in Oneonta, New York, I was shocked at the dying towns we passed. You would see a boarded up factory and you knew the people who worked there were never able to get another job to replace the one they had. You would see dying towns because young people had to leave to make a living. Hilary Clinton is our senator. She has done nothing for those people. What makes anyone think she would be different if she were president.
When will the corporations realize that a strong working class is good for our country. Do they want to turn us into a banana republic? They won't enjoy their wealth if they have to live behind barbed wire to protect themselves. Sure you can produce an item cheaper overseas, but if you take someone's job away they cannot purchase that item no matter how cheap it is.
I am also enraged that there are no more holidays for people who work in retail. Every holiday is an excuse for longer hours. Last Christmas season some department stores were opening up at 6:00 a.m. and staying open until midnight.
I'm one of the fortunate people who work for a decent firm that pays and treats its workers fairly. It's a good thing it's a private firm because I'm sure Wall Street would hate the fact that many of the employees have been here twenty years or more, that we get paid time off and all holidays. Yet my firm makes a profit year after year.
I have often wondered how many layoffs could have been averted had the CEO taken a slight cut in his compensation. After all what's one million when you're making twenty?
Prophet B.S. Clinton could have refused NAFTA and use the bully pulpit to denounce but didn't.
Just because shameless conservatives denounce Clinton while refusing to look at their own evil doesn't mean that BOTH aren't in the clutches of the corporate globalists. Weasel arguments from both Dimocrpaps and Ripoffagains impress me not all as an activist hard leftist.
As another trade unionist, a Teamster, I'll share my thoughts and opinions. First of all, I'll comment on Professor Reich's article and then fill in the missing blanks. Bear with me folks, I'm a truck driver and not a scholar, but have been around the block a few times.
When the young person asked whether 'Labor Day' was named in honor of natural childbirth...are you sure it was only "half in jest?" Do you remember, Bob, a few years ago when a survey was taken with our younger generation, many of whom didn't know we fought a war with Japan. (MSM reported it)
How could our young people today know who Walter Reuther of the UAW, John L. Lewis of the UMW union, and my hero, Harry Bridges of the San Francisco waterfront, the ILWU, when, Professor Reich, they ARE NOT TAUGHT about these great labor leaders in school. It's intentional! Unless a person is involved in writing about U.S. Labor History, or knows an old history buff like me, these men never existed.
Now fewer than 8 percent of America's private sector workers are in unions, as you state, compared to the 1950's-60's when approximately 33% of 'blue-collar' working men and women were unionized."What happened?", you ask. A little interjecting on this topic. We are in the same age group Bob, so I know you can remember as I do when the local newspaper had a 'Labor' beat, or column, in the business section written by a journalist who, if he or she were honest, gave the union point of view as well as managements point of view. What newspaper/s in America today provide this information? ("out of sight, out of mind")
Back to labor history, 101.
During the 1850's, when much of the United States was divided over the issue of slavery, one southern capitalist in particular made a strong case for slave ownership. His premise was that it was cheaper to buy a Negro in the 'free marketplace' and give them room and board in exchange for their labor. He said basically that "the whites wanted too much money" for their labor, and would cut his profits by employing non-slave labor. And mind you, Mr. Reich, there weren't any "greedy labor unions" yet, in our country.
Between 1861-65, the bloodiest war in American history was fought, with more casualties per capita than World War Two. ( IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS, IT IS UNFORGIVABLE! ) The southern boys didn't realize the true reason they were fighting those damn yankees, but were baited and lost life and limb in the process. To be fair, the northern boys objected to slavery, fearing wage cuts by their bosses if Negros were used in their stead, The collective ulterior motive of workers in the north and south should have been AGAINST slavery...period!
Labor History,102
After WW2, much of Europe and Asia were still recovering from the carnage of the Nazis and the Japanese Imperialists, and America became the premier manufacturing mecca of the world. Again, after strikes and much struggle, 33% of working class people were unionized, Mostly in the north and the three west coast states.
The corporatists, capitalists, or whatever noun you'd like to use, realized more profit could be made by moving the unionized companies 'down south' where organized labor was associated with communism etcetera. They relocated down south and when the south began to unionize for their 'fair share' of what they produced for the company...you know the rest, Professor. "Those greedy rednecks want more money and benefits.What nerve!"
So they opened factories in Mexico for a tiny fraction of what Americans make or made. You know about the legalized sweatshops down yonder, Bob. We all do.
But that wasn't enough. Chinese labor works for even less! No need for further comment on the Dragon.
The next continent being reading for renewed colonialism is Africa. Our henchman, aka the military, have been there at the bidding of the corporate oligarchy who tell the politicians what laws to pass and what moves to make.
Have you ever heard one Democrat talk of repealing the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act?
I'm probably boring all who are reading my comments, so I'll sum it up. Labor History and 'civics' , or when I was in grammer school it was called 'social studies', isn't taught anymore. This has been a concerted effort to keep the 'masses' ignorant so they won't rebel as they did in France and Russia and other countries. Any leader who helps the people with social programs is demonized by the prostituted corporate media. The wealthy in America despised Franklin Delano Roosevelts' social programs, but in actuality he saved their class from what may have been the type of ending that the Romanov's received after they were captured and sentenced.
Suggested reading by 'me'
LABOR'S UNTOLD STORY, by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais: pub>1955
THE WAR AT HOME,by Jack Rasmus: pub>2006
Also, check out the international labor organization...labourstart.org
labornotes.org
Typo correction. I meant the word 'readied' instead of 'reading'
Thank you for the impromptu history lesson. I am planning to attend my first labor day parade on Monday which is organized by the teamsters. (I am not all that young and have been learning about the labor movement on my own. Best wishes.
kady: You'r welcome. I covered a few things, the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. I admire you for wanting to learn about the labor movement on your own. I don't know what part of the country you are from, but in many metropolitan areas the smaller city or community colleges have labor studies classes and of course, access to books on the subject.
Enjoy the parade tomorrow and talk to some of the old-timers about their experiences. And best wishes to you.
well now, you've caught me right out, peaceman - i ain't greek at all, am i, grin grin.
say my screen name out loud three times fast and you'll hear what it's saying:
save your own asses
that workingman line is a quote - or near one - from somebody whose name i can't recall (sorry!)
Zounds! Bravo to the savvy comments-makers here! What a pleasure to read such well-informed, excellently expressed, and helpful posts!
Bored? Are you kidding, peaceman? Way to generate light, youse guys!
I add recommendation for students - of "Eugene V. Debs: A Biography" by Ray Ginger
Though i am not a Socialist, EV Debs entered my heart permanently through that book, and it, and Howard Zinn's books, were most helpful in my own self-introduction to these issues.
Sam Pizzigati over at Too Much ought to get a mention in here, too. I adore Sam - longtime labor-movement journalist whose emails I get on Mondays.
Thanks for the other books I hadn't heard of, peaceman, and it truly is a pleasure to share space and time with all the people who left such high-quality comments.
quote conceptualguerilla (dot com) for Labor Day: Anybody who isn't yet convinced that everything is produced by labor should right now take a dollar bill out of your wallet, and tell it to fix you a sandwich.
Xavier Onassis: Tikonis! (did I spell it right?) You made my evening. Eugene Debs was a hero for working people, that's for sure.
Thank you for reminding me of Sam Pizzagati.
Howard Zinn is one of my greatest heroes, also.
You are right on target Xavier about the dollar bill making a sandwich. This is why I say on so many of my posts, the seven magic words if people are really serious about the things I mentioned before as well as putting an end to crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When the time is right....TAKE TO THE STREETS, WITHHOLD YOUR LABOR! (peacefully)
Enjoy the holiday for LABOR tomorrow.
Good morning, peaceman. I hereby confess to ignorance on the meaning of the term 'Tikonis', but i sure am curious. Enlighten me further?
here is a tiny poem for you on this holiday for LABOR, written by a beloved teacher of mine (he's from New Zealand):
god labours uphill to bring me sun
his ancient supple limbs charged with love's vim
i think awareness is on the rise, peaceman. count on me when the time is right to help demonstrate that the workingman is most powerful when his two hands are kept firmly in his pockets...
it's a real pleasure to meet you, pal. and hey, you just might like Joe Bageant's new book called "Deer Hunting with Jesus". Joe writes "of the degraded state of the working class"..."like an avenging angel"
Xavier, Thanks again for the tiny poem and the book information.
The word I mispelled is the Greek word for a greeting: like ' how ya' doing', ( gotta check with Ariana Huffington on that one)
'Deer Hunting With Jesus' is a strange title for the man who was a strict vegetarian.
I'm currently reading 'IRON HEEL' by Jack London, a socialist and humanitarian.
"The workingman is most powerful when his two hands are kept firmly in his pockets"...a unique concept.
"Sounds Greek to me."
That's okay, Xman or Xwoman? I said it out loud three times. Very good. Better than "86'd for exited.
i be a she, peaceman. not too big a one, at that. all of 4 foot 12 inches in stature, but don't let that fool you.
i spent better than ten years in the trades, and i can - or at least could in days past - roof your house, or be excellent help building, wiring, or plumbing you one. i can tile your bath and do really nice masonry work. just can't carry the shingle bundles up the ladder, is all, or too much sheetrock too far, especially in the heat and humidity.
have been on the factory floor, too - doing the same work done by the far brawnier than i am. geez, that seems long ago!
the factory was my only union days. my years in construction and remodel were as a helper to two semi-retired contractors.
today i think i'm more useful baking zucchini bread.
and i make awesome stuffed peppers!
(it was a long day in the garden and kitchen today!) (besides being here at CD, as well)
hope you and all the other laborers you know had a good, good day!