Hamburger with Unions

How’d the strike go?
The slow-down?
The walk-out?
How is that old union of yours? I forget, what’s it called: the United Barbeque Grillers? Or is it the Amalgamated Association of Vacation Home-Owners?
It’s wonderful, isn’t it, to have a holiday all our own: a day dedicated to the former workers of America.
Most people don’t know – and would never suspect, that this cocktail party we call Labor Day was born in bloodshed and turmoil.
When the 12,000 troops called out to break the Pullman strike in the late 1890’s, shot several protesters, President Grover Cleveland felt his chances of re-election were in jeopardy, so he threw a bone to the labor movement which had been lobbying for their own holiday for years.
From the moment the first newspaper account of the tragedy hit the streets, it took only six days for the Congress to push the legislation establishing Labor Day through both houses.
President Cleveland eagerly signed it into law, and a few months later lost the election.
Labor Day was originally envisioned by socialist leaders as both a day of rest, and a chance for workers to unite, and march through small-town America, shoulder to shoulder. On this Labor Day just past most American workers were shoulder to shoulder all right, soaking up the sun on beaches coast to coast.
Today Labor Day is considered the last best chance for a family barbeque, the last gasp of the summer vacation, and the last time this year that you will be able to breeze through the city before the traffic returns to its regular weekday slog and we go about our business – without any sense of renewed camaraderie with the guy in the cubicle next to us.
At its peak though, over 50% of American workers belonged to a Union.
Today it’s one in ten.
So I suppose we can excuse what we have done to what was supposed to be a celebration of the dignity of work. Compared to Christmas, Labor Day is not so bad: that is, the celebration of the birth of Christ – as practiced in these United States, often has more in common with carnival time in Rio, than it does with the origins of the day. Americans have a particular talent for turning every holiday – regardless of its origins, into The Feast of the Miraculous Consumption. From that perspective Labor Day is almost a sacred celebration – reverently observed with closed eyes and a cold beer.
You can also argue that we live in a changed world where, perhaps, it is not as important that we have the kinds of protections that Unions once provided: especially considering that many of those same protections are now embodied in the law.
We should also acknowledge that the work force has changed dramatically – in the last 100 years, both as to the kinds of labor we perform, and the nature of our employers. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people who work for themselves – part and full time. In large part the physical labor that many Americans were required to do – 50 years ago, has been relegated to workers in other countries (or from other countries) where, ironically, most do not have the protection of a Union. If they had more unions in China, you wouldn’t be able to buy that molded plastic dish tray for $1.99. But then again, if China had more unions, maybe America would be able to compete in areas that we have largely given up on – like steel production, computers, television and soon, cars.
Would you pay $200 more for your new flat screen television, if it meant that America had 100,000 more high paying jobs in that industry?
Would you pay $5 more for a wise-cracking President Elmo doll, to make sure that assembly line workers at the Chinese toy plant can’t be fired to make room for the plant owner’s cousins?
Then again, maybe we just can’t be bothered. Maybe we are content with our lives, with our cars, our boats, and our weekends at Foxwoods. Maybe the past successes of unions have made our lives too easy.
But are you confident that it will all be there, tomorrow?
How much of your confidence, is based on the bloated value of your home?
How much of your confidence is based on the fact that both you and your wife work? When the unions were strong, it took only one wage earner to support a family.
And for all of your things, how much time do you have to enjoy life?
Perhaps white collar workers in their glass towers need unions too?
Maybe the independent, entrepreneur working in his basement, is entitled to certain protections as well.
“Know your rights”, the Clash sang a few years back.
You have the right, they implied to metallic guitar chords, to affordable health care.
You have the right – they seemed to suggest, to reasonably priced gasoline.
You have the right, they sang, to clean air.
And privacy.
Most of us don’t worry about receiving a beating from our supervisor, or being forced to work 12 hours a day, or being locked into an unventilated room and chained to a sewing machine – and in large part unions are responsible for ending those kinds of indignities in the United States.
But many of us worry that if our parents become ill, everything they worked for will be sacrificed to pay for their care. And many of us pay half of our income for heat and gas for our cars. And every day corporations and/or the government intrude farther and farther into our private lives.
There is nothing wrong with celebrating Labor Day by lounging by the poolside, or flipping burgers, or getting that toll booth tan on the way home from the mountains. But perhaps the time has come again to remember the other part of the celebration, to remember the power that we have when we come together to protect one another.
Maybe next year Labor Day will be a day on which we actually work to ensure our rights – as worker, citizen, and inhabitant of the planet.