It has come and gone and for most it was just an opportunity to have an extra day off to hit the sales racks or grill out. As human nature is wont to do, we tend to forget the why of the holiday when enough time has passed that a generation or two will have no independent recollection of the events precipitating it. When we must rely on our history class to understand the issues that led to its existence then it is harder to appreciate the importance. And so it goes for Labor Day.
The holiday name allows us to intuit what is being honored, but without the context and the experience of the laborer it does not impact us as it must have those workers when it was conceived over one hundred and twenty five years ago. According to the Labor Department, the individual cities and states led the effort to recognize the American worker beginning in 1885. The culmination of the approval of a Labor Day holiday was in 1894 as it became an official Federal holiday held in the month of September.
The holiday was proposed by union leaders to celebrate esprit de corps and economic achievements of American workers. Though unions are much maligned in this day and time, there was an era when the unions were the only resource for the worker in the United States. Unions were formed because of gross workplace management abuses and before there was protective legislation against such things as 18 hour work days, 7 day work weeks and child labor. The unions were instrumental in obtaining nationwide workplace safety rules and rights in the working environment.
The good will and value of the unions are reduced by abuses that inevitably attend to power. The union negotiations for excessive demands burdening the employer beyond the benefit obtained were part of the problem. Due to those excesses and poor public relations from them, the pendulum has swung away from union membership. It is also relevant that the benefits the unions provided have in some part been taken over by the government through the federal workplace safety and fair treatment laws.
Having said that, I can still say with pride that I am a former card-carrying member of a union organization. As a Delta pilot we were, if we chose to be, members of the Airline Pilot’s Association (ALPA). I was one of 10,000+ pilots who worked for Delta and reaped the benefits of the bargaining that came through our member representatives. I emphatically believe that an organization of over 100,000 employees has little ability or time to consider the individual employee in any given circumstance. Therein lies the primary value a union provides to its membership; representation.
It is important to the sense of satisfaction for a profession or a job to know that despite your individual status in the larger group, you have access to those who will go to bat for you if there are concerns or issues. That was particularly true when I was one of 10 or so women in a complement of 10,000 or more pilots.
It is also true that only through union negotiations was there objective parity for my pay versus my equivalent male counterpart. Had the distinction been left to the management, I am certain that the 64.6 percent rule would have applied. But for union absolutism in pay standards I would have been part of that statistical norm. As a side note, the pay gap has narrowed since then, but it still hovers at 76 percent.
History matters and the circumstances of the rise of unions must be told so such things as child labor and workplace safety hazards do not creep back into the American employment scene. Mississippi is known a right to work state which strikes me as a half truth cloaked as a misnomer in that it means you also have an equally good chance of being fired for any non-prohibited reason including “just because.” Unions are not well received here. I am not sure if that is because they are considered an import from the north or if their value to the worker has been undermined by the power brokers whose vested interest is in keeping them at bay.
I have heard it said that a union is un-American. A union is as American as it gets. It is a collection of people who band together to achieve certain goals. They elect leaders and vote and wield influence. It is every bit a part of the fabric of our history and our future. While they may deserve caution in the support of them, they should not be dismissed out of hand as evil institutions.
And you thought that Labor Day just meant you had to put your white shoes in the closet until spring.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.