Putting Labor Back in Labor Day Weekend
More Lessons Learned from My Dad
Note: I originally wrote a version of this post in 2018. I’ve made a few updates below to include a reader’s comment that was especially apropos.
Labor Day weekend is a reminder that there’s no labor party in U.S. politics. Instead, we have two pro-business parties: the Republican and the Republican-lite, otherwise known as the Democratic Party. Both are coerced if not controlled by corporations through campaign finance “contributions” (bribes) and lobbyists (plus the promise of high-paying jobs should your local member of Congress lose an election or wish to transition to a much higher paying job as a lobbyist/influence peddler). With money now defined as speech, thanks to the Supreme Court, there’s a lot of “speech” happening in Congress that has nothing to do with the concerns of workers.
Nevertheless, a myth exists within the mainstream media that “socialist” progressive politicians are coming to take your money and to give it to the undeserving poor (and especially to “illegal” immigrants, who aren’t even citizens!). First of all, the so-called Democratic Socialists are not advocating nationalization of industry; they’re basically New Deal Democrats in the tradition of FDR. Just like Republicans, they believe in capitalism (and bow to corporatism) and the “free” market; they just want to sand down some of the rougher edges of exploitation.
Consider, for example, Bernie Sanders’s past efforts to get a living wage for Disney employees. In 2018 Disney finally promised to pay workers $15.00 an hour (phased in over the next few years), even as the corporation made record profits and the CEO earned hundreds of millions. Second, the bulk of the Trumpian tax breaks didn’t go to the workers and middle class: the richest Americans (and corporations) benefited the most from Trump’s tax cuts. Some of that money was supposed to “trickle down” to workers, but most of it didn’t. (Funding stock buy-backs, not pay raises, was and is especially popular among corporations.)
(An aside: trickle-down economics is almost an honest term, for that is what both major political parties in America support for workers: a “trickle” of pay and benefits. Forget about a stream or steady flow; of course, gushers and floods of money flow upwards to the richest few and remain there, irrespective of physical laws like gravity.)
My father knew the score. As a factory worker, he lived the reality of labor exploitation and fought his own humble battle for decent wages. His experience led him to conclude that the rich had neither sympathy nor use for the poor.
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I’d like to share a comment made at Bracing Views by a reader back in 2018. It captured the sad reality of Labor Day as it exists today in America:
Labor Day is perhaps our most hollowed out and meaningless of all the the National Holidays we celebrate…
Celebrating Labor Day as it should be, that is the documentation of Labor’s over 100 years of historical struggle against Capitalism is not something we can do. We cannot celebrate it for two reasons: One it would be admission of the class warfare the 1% vs us Proles, and Two we have no Labor Party here in the USA to represent us.
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As Leo W. Gerard is the International President of the United Steelworkers (USW) union has written:“American corporations weren’t always shareholder-centered. For about three decades after World War II, worker wages rose in tandem with productivity. This was a time during which corporations subscribed to the philosophy that they were obligated to serve their customers, communities, workers and shareholders.
Over the past 30 years, however, US corporations embraced a new notion, which is that they had only one responsibility, to fill the pockets of shareholders.
That is the same 30 years during which workers’ wages stagnated and CEO pay rose no matter how badly the executive performed. That is the same 30 years in which private equity firms bought manufacturers, loaded them up with debt, sold them off at massive profit then shrugged when a stumble threw the firm into bankruptcy, closed factories and killed good, family-supporting American jobs. That is the same 30 years when American corporations moved manufacturing from the United States to low-wage, high-pollution countries like Mexico and China.”
*******************************************Today, Labor Day, you can celebrate it by going to your local Big Box Store and take advantage of the Labor Day Sales, and purchase a product NOT Made in USA and sold to you by cashiers probably not making a Living Wage.
Again, right on the money; the cold hard truth. U.S. economic policy has largely reflected "trickle-down economics" for some years; with a few crumbs thrown to the 'proles' every so often by the Republican-Lite faction; just enough to keep their flocks in line. The overall economic policy in which it's now embedded is neoliberalism; and its embrace began in earnest with Bill Clinton and the "Third Way" Democrats, which is what the Party establishment is now decidedly reflecting.
One of my favorite guys, Jim Hightower, had a more apt name for it, though: "tinkle-down" economics, reflecting just who was doing what to whom.
As with probably all matters, its introduction leads to lots of opposing opinions about the pros, cons, causes and effects. Why should the question of unions and organized labor be any different?
Because it's an interesting and important topic, I'll add my 2 bits' worth.
First off, let's just acknowledge: a union is, like any other human-created institution, subject to the failings and weaknesses of both its creators and subsequent leaders / managers. All such entitites are, like their creators and leaders, therefore at any moment, full of imperfections.
Take the good ol' USofA itself. Aside from the fact that the Constitution locked in a form of government that right off the bat departed significantly (in the institution of the Senate) from the noble ideal of representative democracy and 'one man, one vote', and a few other failures to actually ensure that ideal would be protected, all in all it's a pretty darn good document.
Yet I think many of us would agree that the nation is far (and increasingly farther) away from any ideals such as we learned in, what, 5th grade? Imperfect people, some lacking any strong moral compass and quite easily corrupted by still others of the same traits, see to that. The institutions themselves become seen as corrupt and in any case, fail to discharge even basic duties. The political process being so entirely corrupted and compromised, how could it not fail to lose the faith of its people?
You could look at many different types of institutions; from academia to a zoo, and you'd see, over time, how often noble intentions and values are compromised by politics twisted by imperfect people often motivated primarily by personal gain. Power and wealth- seeking drags institutions down and away from otherwise benign purpose.
Having said that, do we throw all into the scrap heap to start over, assuming that "we" are all perfect, incorruptible and wise?
Why would we expect that Unions are no exception to this, of course. The ideals and purposes of labor organizing are still valid and probably needed more than ever, given that corporations- projections of highly concentrated private capital - have assumed so much power and control over governments and the economy?
As unions were the only real counterbalance to concentrated private capital in the labor market, they have served a critical purpose. It's probable if not certain that without them, we'd still have child labor, an even more impoverished citizenry and even-more outrageous wealth, income and power gaps, no such thing as sick leave, paid holidays, overtime pay, or many other things now taken for granted. (How easily we forget).
"But", people argue, "that was then. Unions are no longer necessary. They're dead weight, and we know that labor bosses are just thugs out for themselves".
I'm reminded by this of a conversation I had with my dad. He was a lithograph artist with Syracuse China; and as one with a rarer / higher skill set, was probably paid a bit more than the average workers in the production and shipping areas; though when I much later saw how little he actually earned while providing for a family with 10 kids (another story!), I was shocked and suddenly understood why he also had to be a complete DIY guy... roofer, electrician, plumber, car mechanic, carpenter, appliance repair man; you name it. He literally had no choice!
Anyway, after his company's failed vote on the formation of a union, I asked him how he had voted and why. His answer was for him easy. He said that the company's owners treated employees fair and well...everyone felt like it was almost 'family'; and the owners deserved the employees' loyalty. Why rock the boat?
I recalled this conversation about 15 years later. My father, now very close to retirement age, had received a pink slip, along with a number of others in his age peer group. The original owners to whom he had given his loyalty had sold out to a yet bigger corporation; and they had in turn sold out to an investment company, which like so many others, stripped it and scuttled it.
One of the results, of course, was that the new investors swiftly eliminated any liabilities... like the pensions that were earned and promised to loyal workers like my father. His dismissal came perhaps a year or less before he was qualified for a full pension. The same was true for very many others so discharged.
Now my father was a man of great honor. For him, a deal was a deal; a promise something that would be upheld. It wouldn't matter the cost to him, he'd uphold his end of the bargain. And if someone- even a stranger- needed a hand, he'd be there to give it. He always went out of his way to make sure that things were easier / more perfect for the next person. That sort of thing. That was the kind of man he was. And so this, possibly his first experience of betrayal by a company, was soul-crushing. To be completely honest, I don't think he ever fully recovered, emotionally, from it.
And while I don't know if he ever thought about it, himself, after this, his words about his trust in the company and his loyalty to it as reasons for voting against unionization have echoed in my own mind many times since. .
So while unions may not be without limitations and flaws and may occasionally suffer self-serving leaders, etc., it's my view that they are overall very important in maintaining at least some protections for labor.