Thank Labor for Our High Quality of Life

Americans ought to think of the first Monday in September as Thanksgiving.

I’m not suggesting that we replace or even diminish our oldest national holiday. But organized labor--through lobbying, through collective bargaining and through the competitive pressures it has generated in the job market--has helped improve Americans’ lives in ways we often take for granted.

Imagine an America without organized labor and you will see a nation without many of the following:

-- The 40-hour work week.

-- Child labor laws.

-- Creation of the public education system, including land-grant colleges, vocational and technical schools and on-the-job training.

-- The minimum wage.

-- A strong Social Security system.

-- Medicare.

-- Civil- and human-rights protections.

-- Protections from injury and against harassment in the workplace.

-- Fringe benefits, such as health care, vacations, sick leave and pensions.

Today there is consensus behind these measures, which makes it easy to forget what was said during the pitched battles for their passage: Social Security and unemployment insurance would make workers indolent and cause grass to grow in the streets. Medicare would lead to socialized medicine (perhaps it should have, but it hasn’t). The Civil Rights Act was going to destroy the American way of life (just the opposite). The minimum wage--and each subsequent increase--would cause a major job loss (none has).

Now labor is working hard for a full agenda of legislative improvements: mandated employee health benefits, better assistance for day care, parental leave and a desperately needed increase in the minimum wage. And history is repeating itself: These measures have generated the usual amount of controversy.

Yet I suspect that 20 years after their passage--and all will become law, if not in this session of Congress, then in future ones--they will be viewed as Social Security and Medicare are--important benefits we can’t imagine doing without.

What’s most interesting about labor’s agenda is that its prime beneficiaries are workers who do not belong to labor unions.

Workers who earn the minimum wage and those who lack health benefits are almost all non-union. And for good reason; unions don’t negotiate such contracts. Yet labor has always made a special effort on their behalf. And thank God, because somebody has to. Our President would deny them 30 cents more an hour, while giving taxpayers earning more than $200,000 an average of $30,000 a year through a capital gains tax cut. Meanwhile, the minimum wage leaves a family of four nearly $4,000 below the poverty level.

Day care and parental leave are less widespread benefits, although those who have them are primarily union workers. Labor could use this as an organizing incentive; instead, it wants to put such benefits in reach of everyone.

Why? Because the characterization of labor as a greedy special interest by right-wing politicians and employers is fraudulent.

Sure, labor unions fight to protect the interests of their members. But they also serve a larger and, unfortunately, less publicized purpose: to advance the well-being of all working Americans. When the labor movement sees the opportunity to improve society, it marshals its resources to do that, even when it might hurt its ability to organize.

Of course, I can already hear the pundits on the Labor Day talk shows, misrepresenting the decline in union membership as the death of organized labor. This drop has occurred because the economy is shifting away from heavily unionized industries such as manufacturing and toward service and white-collar sectors not yet widely organized. It’s not because of dissatisfaction with unions.

But labor has been a victim of its success. The recent rejection of the United Auto Workers at Nissan in Tennessee is a perfect case in point. The UAW lost because, while its charges against Nissan were legitimate, Nissan pays its employees much more than most of them previously earned and offers good benefits and job security.

Why? Ironically, because of the UAW. Like most non-union businesses that provide good pay, benefits and working conditions, Nissan does so to head off the threat that its employees will join a union.

So on this Labor Day, I do hope that Americans think about what labor means to them. Union members know that it means better pay, benefits and working conditions, and a stronger voice in what happens on the job.

I hope that non-members of unions know what it means, too. Benefits--necessities--codified into the laws of our land. A more just society. And in many cases, a humane workplace environment.

I hope that they take the time to give thanks for these gifts. And I hope that they understand that the preservation and improvement of these benefits is dependent on a continued strong, vital labor movement.