Today is the day we give thanks to the working men and women of America. As a nation, and as individuals, we owe a great debt to organized labor. As a tribute to these American heroes, here is a small part of what they have done to make your life better.
…As these conservatives have launched their assault, a Main Street Movement consisting of ordinary Americans fed up with living in such an unequal country has fought back.
Conservatives have sought to malign this movement by claiming that it is simply defending the parochial interests of labor unions, who they claim are imposing huge costs on taxpayers with little benefit. Yet the truth is that America’s public and private unions have been one of the major forces in building a robust and vibrant middle class and have fought over the past century to improve the lives of all Americans in a variety of ways. ThinkProgress has assembled just five of the many things that Americans can thank the nation’s unions for giving us all:
1. Unions Gave Us The Weekend: Even the ultra-conservative Mises Institute notes that the relatively labor-free 1870, the average workweek for most Americans was 61 hours — almost double what most Americans work now…
2. Unions Gave Us Fair Wages And Relative Income Equality: As ThinkProgress reported earlier in the week, the relative decline of unions over the past 35 years has mirrored a decline in the middle class’s share of national income…
3. Unions Helped End Child Labor: “Union organizing and child labor reform were often intertwined” in U.S. history, with organization’s like the “National Consumers’ League” and the National Child Labor Committee” working together in the early 20th century to ban child labor…
4. Unions Won Widespread Employer-Based Health Coverage: “The rise of unions in the 1930′s and 1940′s led to the first great expansion of health care” for all Americans, as labor unions banded workers together to negotiate for health coverage plans from employers…
5. Unions Spearheaded The Fight For The Family And Medical Leave Act: Labor unions like the AFL-CIO federation led the fight for this 1993 law, which “requires state agencies and private employers with more than 50 employees to provide up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave annually for workers to care for a newborn, newly adopted child, seriously ill family member or for the worker’s own illness.”
…[emphasis original]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
This article is about six months old. Click through. There’s a lot more detail.
To the working men and women of America, including those looking for work, thank you.
Happy Labor Day to all.
25 Responses to “Labor Day: What Has Labor Done for America?”
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Section of Mural Celebrating Labor That Maine’s Teabagger Gov. LePage Had Removed from Maine’s Dept. of Labor Building
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/03/23/152424/paul-lepage-labor-mural/
He completely REMOVED this historic mural? Reminds me of the Taliban blowing up the Buddist antiquities found in the mountains of Afghanistan when they came to power in the late 1990’s. This is Maine, a thoroughly independent-minded state — good grief!
Is there nothing Republicans won’t do to hide truth?
Employer sponsored health care was not a t first a union negotiated benefit. It was offered by employers trying to lure employees away from one manufacturing plant to their plant due to a shortage of labor during WWII. It’s easy enough to verify and see the truth of because here we are 60 years later with it a huge cluster fuck of a system that them that started it want out of which in part is why most jobs are now part time, no benefit, at will employment.
I think health care is an unfair burden for business. I support single payer health care.
Then they never should have got in the business of it, but then someone in the health industry a group of doctors accountants figured out a way to turn health care into an industry and then single payer which WE established in every conquered nation after WWII would be our reality as well.
I agree.
Try to fine one TV special or documentary on America’s labor movement today.
I didn’t want to do that much work on Labor Day. 😉
There was none, ergo it would have been no work at all except to watch 15 second clips on the local news.
Tom…
I apologize to you and all the rest here for my previous comment on yesterdays thread. It was in bad taste and I shouldn’t have posted that, however I’m terribly scared that the Reich-wing Republicans will incite someone in their base of nut cases to harm our President or his family.
From day one they have been making comments that someone like Loughner would take as a sign to go after the President and use violence against him. In fact I’m surprised that more Democrats haven’t had violence used against them though the other day a Democrat had shots fired into his office.
They won’t be happy until they start another war and if they harm our President or his family then I truly believe that we will have another war here on our shores and blood will run in our streets just like its running in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and the other Arab Nations in the Middle East.
Anyway have a great Labor Day Holiday.
AP, apology accepted. Fortunately, your comment was sufficiently obtuse that I had no idea what you meant.
They would be more than happy to go back even further. they would really enjoy a feudal ststem like the Dark Ages where they wouldn’t even have to pay for labor. We would all be serfs and the lords & ladies would be sitting in their castles eating cake.
Bring back the guillotine!
Feudalism might offer more benefits to the serfs than Republicans would like.
OUYSTANDING post. TomCat! Paul LePage is a disgrace to American politics and should be removed from office, just like Scott Walker will be.
Thanks, Jack. Yes they are!
I agree with all the comments made today. We need to get the “big business” parasites out of government and restore the unions and labor to the prominence they once had. The working man is the real person, not “so and so, Inc.”
America will be fine………..
Well said, Johnny.
Excellent post, Tom. However, now I’m so depressed I want to eat a whole quart of ice cream.
Dang! In spite of the heat, I limited myself to 1/4 pint. :roll”
FINALLY, giving our Unions their DUE!
Haven’t I always?
We could use a dose of buy American.
Americans quickly forget the who, how and why of their easy lifestyles. We should be constantly reminded, as you have with this post. Thank you.
Another reader left this a couple days ago.
http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/men.html
When I was younger, I was so anti union. I didn’t want anyone telling me how to think. I didn’t want anyone to tell me I couldn’t take a job because someone else had more seniority. I had to deal with that very early on in a non-union setting too, but in that case I won and my career was started. I didn’t want to pay union dues to some union that was going to get me what I already had.
I witnessed the attempted unionisation of Canadian banks in the 1970’s and was a junior manager, so union exempt. I remember the bank tactics towards junior and mid level managers — if a union comes in, you’re fired! Although they didn’t say it outright initially, they sure did talk about life in Inuvik or Tuktayuktuk, both of which are in the high north above the Arctic Circle and very isolated. You sure got the point.
I have always acknowledged that unions were good and a necessary response to the Industrial Revolution, but felt times had changed and they were no longer needed. Now I’m older and hopefully a little wiser. There are still businesses and governments out there that would ‘abuse’ worker rights. For that, I am glad that the unions are around.
I think the general labour atmosphere is different between our 2 countries, Canada and the US. And depending on the industry, unions work differently. But I think that if management and labour could escape from this confrontational approach to labour relations, all economies would be better.
Happy Labour Day!