The American Worker

By Hank Silverberg

It’s Labor Day. Thousands of Americans have been on the road for the last unofficial weekend of summer. They may have been at the beach, or in the mountains. Or maybe they just stayed in the back yard with the barbecue grill. For most Americans it’s a day off.

Labor Unions were the major force behind Labor Day. It was a day set aside to honor the American worker, many of them immigrants who had built railroads, skyscrapers, roads and automobiles during the height of the Industrial Revolution, and turned the United States into a world economic power. 

The first official national Labor Day came in 1894, by which time 30 states had already established the day to celebrate the American worker. It was the era of the robber barons, who reaped the benefit of other people’s labor. They often accused labor organizers of being anarchists or communists and sent thugs to break up their organizing meetings.

(Workers on  DC Metro's Silver Line, 2013
Photo by Hank Silverberg)  

It was the same year as the Pullman strike near Chicago shut down the railroads. It started after the company cut pay, laid off workers and raised rents in the company owned town where the workers were required to live.  It took  Federal intervention to get the trains running again. The strike was a tactical failure, and organizer Eugene Debs went to jail. But the strike had an impact on a good portion of the country, and it was the beginning of a slow change in overall public opinion.

The result was a series of labor laws over the next few decades that changed the relationship between corporate America and the people who made their companies work. So, Labor Day is also a time to celebrate the labor movement which brought us the 40-hour workweek, safe working conditions, child labor laws, sick leave, paid vacations, the minimum wage and severance pay, among other things.             

(Triangle Shirtwaiste factory before the fire, Courtesy of CUNY)

Most Americans alive today have no memory of six or seven day work weeks at 12 hours a day. They can’t imagine children as young as 10 or 12 working long hours in death traps. Many have never heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York where 146 people, mostly teenage girls, died in 1911 when a fire swept the 10-story building. It had only one poorly constructed fire escape, one functioning elevator and a narrow internal staircase locked from the outside to prevent theft.  The average American today doesn’t know anything about coal towns where miners got paid in script that could only be redeemed at the company store, virtually trapping those workers in a cycle of poverty.  

 Even if you have never been a member of a union (I have) you still owe those who helped form them in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, and the workers who sacrificed their future and in some cases their lives, to make life better for future generations. 

Labor unions are by no means perfect. In the past they have discriminated against minorities, associated with organized crime, and reeked with corruption. Today, they take millions in dues to negotiate large contracts, but often do little to protect individual jobs, and more importantly, their member's pensions. But Labor Day is not just about labor unions. The American worker is still what makes this country run. They teach our children, drive our buses, maintain our electric grid and road system, deliver our mail, serve or cook our food, and yes, still make the railroads run. Ironically, many of them work on Labor Day, or the country would grind to a halt. Someone has to cover the fire station, fix the broken water main, man the local radio station to keep you informed and entertained on your trip, or clean up the dirty emergency room. 

They are what makes the United States the greatest country on earth. They, not the rich or privileged, are the backbone of America.

I hope you took some time this Labor Day to honor the American worker.  If you own a company or manage one take note that it is the people who work for you who make your company a full success.  And if you are a worker,  I hope you had a nice paid holiday off. You and your predecessors earned it.

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