Steve Frey
“Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours, and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor,” President John F. Kennedy.
You have seen their pictures—young children working at mills or mines instead of going to school. Children once worked long hours for little pay.
Sometimes they were accidentally killed on their demanding jobs. Sometimes many of them died at once in a factory fire. These children had no childhood.
Today, because men and women joined hands and fought unfair labor practices through a union, young children no longer have to toil or die in some sweatshop.
You may be lucky enough to have today off from work. There was a time when there was no such thing as a weekend.
In 1870, the average workweek was 61 hours, not the 40 or less many workers put in today. If you have a couple of days off from work each week, you can thank the members of unions who negotiated shorter work weeks and discovered something they had never experienced before—leisure time.
Right after the fair workweek has to come the eight-hour day. In the past, workers labored as long as the boss said they worked—sometimes 12 hours a day.
If they didn’t, they could be replaced. Unions helped negotiate a fair working day, so people could actually see families and, believe it or not, rest.
Do you have health insurance through your work? If you do, thank the men and women from the past who belonged to unions and negotiated fringe benefits like health insurance.
Families often had to spend a fortune on medical bills or go without doctors or hospitals because they could not afford those luxuries.
Someday, no Americans will have to die because they can’t pay for healthcare. If you do have it through work, think about how fortunate you are, and the suffering that union members experienced to achieve it.
Will you have a vacation this year, or even better, a paid vacation? There used to be no such thing as a paid vacation. Union negotiations helped workers be able to have a vacation and get away for a few weeks each year.
This was part of the middle class “American Dream.” Think about the wonderful vacations you had a chance to experience, and then think about the sacrifices of union workers that made it possible.
Hey, do you ever get sick and need to take off time from work? If you get sick leave, yes, you guessed it, thank a union worker.
Without sick leave in the past, workers could not take off for illness, surgery or anything else. If they did, they didn’t get paid and could have been fired and replaced.
This is not the case for all workers today, but many used to be able to work for 40 years and retire with a pension. Unions negotiated pensions so that retirees could spend the few years they had after working (remember, people died much younger in the past than today) actually relaxing with a little money for food and shelter. How are your 401K contributions going?
Oh, by the way, social security was begun for the same reason. It was meant to supplement retirement income so people could afford to survive in their old age. Unions helped push for the social security program.
Do you know anyone who takes social security? Parents? Grandparents? Yourself? Thank a union worker from the past who helped make it possible.
Workplace safety laws aren’t needed, are they? Factory owners in the past would have said no. The families of workers killed or disabled on the job and union workers said they were.
The battle is still going on today. Unions are fighting to make sure workers are not put into a position where they could die in order for the company to save time and make a few extra bucks.
Some workers are able to get overtime pay. Thank you, unions.
Wrongful termination laws: thank you, unions.
Unemployment insurance: thank you, unions.
Unions have been demonized in recent years by company owners and politicians who like to claim they are thugs or communists because they stand up for the working men and women of our country.
In reality, union workers are some of the most patriotic Americans that there are. They are people who love their families and are the backbone of the middle class in America.
Do you realize the disparity between the ultra-rich and the working poor? You’ve heard of the one percent, right?
The middle class has been shrinking for years, just as the pressure to destroy unions has been increasing.
You do realize there is a relationship, don’t you?
Unions won the right to collective bargaining and all of the preceding benefits and more, including salary negotiations, by working together, sticking together and fighting for those benefits—sometimes dying for them. Close to home, miners had to fight for those rights, perhaps relatives in your own family.
It would be wonderful if ownership always put their workers first. It would be amazing if they cared enough about their workers that their safety was paramount.
It would be incredible if CEOs took salaries that were in fair proportion to workers instead of many hundreds of times larger.
Wouldn’t it be nice if business owners were transparent about profits and shared equitably with workers based on the company’s success?
Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Not all owners and managers are fair, ethical people. That is where the union comes in.
So on this Labor Day, remember the hard-working union members past and present and be thankful.
Without the sacrifices of millions of dedicated men and women who stood up, sat down, walked out and stuck together, we wouldn’t have a Labor Day to celebrate.
Steve Frey is a writer and CEO of Ascendant Educational Associates based in Radford.
