One more Labor Day has come and gone in Virginia. Frisbee, corn hole, hamburgers, and hot dogs-all essential Labor Day staples for the discerning family in the Commonwealth. Wal-mart, like many other stores, ran Labor Day sales and promotions, encouraging all the trappings of mass-consumerism. Their website even says that the holiday marks “the end of another summer, it also signals the beginning of a new school year” – a signal that is no doubt prompting another season of mass-consumerism.
Yet somewhere along the line Virginians, and Americans in general, have forgotten what Labor Day actually stands for. Today, the holiday stands for little more than the start of school, weekend-long sales, and maybe a cookout or pool party – its political origins are no longer celebrated. Indeed, many politicians do their best to avoid any mention of organized labor when observing the holiday, maybe just giving an obligatory nod to the “American Worker.”
Labor Day, though, was meant to honor not merely the individual worker, but what workers accomplish together through activism and organizing. Indeed, Labor Day owes its origins to a bloody nationwide railroad strike in 1894, which emerged in the midst of a federal crackdown on labor. At the urging of railroad companies and capitalists, President Grover Cleveland sent more than 10,000 U.S. Army troops to break the Pullman strike in Chicago—the first nationwide strike, which involved more than 150,000 workers from coast to coast. Protesters were jailed, injured, and killed. With (literal) blood in the street, and turmoil that summer, the president extended an olive branch and signed legislation to make Labor Day a national holiday.
Pullman Strike, 1894
The holiday’s international cousin had already begun several years earlier, inspired by another major strike, the Haymarket Affair in Chicago. In 1889, the International Socialist Conference declared that, in commemoration of the Haymarket affair, May 1 would be an international holiday for labor, now known in many places as International Workers’ Day or May Day.
Since that time, the labor movement has fought for fair wages and to improve working conditions. Indeed, their efforts transformed American society. Organized labor was integral in the fight against child labor and for the eight-hour workday and the New Deal, which gave us Social Security and unemployment insurance. These are things all Virginia workers have benefited from, however, those shared victories have come at a cost.
Agitation for anti-trust legislation, shorter workdays and work weeks, and the right to organize has historically been portrayed as un-American and has been suppressed through political subterfuge and in some instances, violence. In 1914, John Kirby, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, described the trade union movement, “an un-American, illegal, and infamous conspiracy.” Anti-labor employers fought against what they saw as flirtations with communism by unionbusting, blacklisting, vigilante violence, and even enlisting government force to their side. During the Red Scare of 1919-1921, many states passed blanket sedition laws against radical speech and banned the flying of the socialist flag – all symbols of workers’ rights.
Labor Strikes and Workers’ Rights
Things haven’t improved much over time. Union membership across the country has shrunk to less than one in eight (35.3 percent among public-sector workers and just 6.7 percent among private-sector workers in 2013) from almost one in four throughout the 1970s. More states have been pushing “Right To Work” laws, and many companies, most infamously Wal-mart, are actively anti-union.
There is reason to hope, however. According to a recent Pew Research poll, about six-in-ten adults today have a favorable view of labor unions (60 percent). Many pro-worker organizations, such as the Democratic Socialists of America, have seen exploding memberships. Even in Virginia, grassroots working-class organizations are growing, such as ‘New River Workers Power,’ (NRWP) based in the New River Valley in southwest Virginia. In fact, NRWP recently coordinated a worker’s strike at a Christiansburg, Virginia Target.
And last year, Virginians voted down a ballot initiative that would have made permanent the state’s right-to-work status with a constitutional amendment. Right-to-work laws forbid contracts between unions and employers that require all employees in a workplace to pay the union for bargaining on their behalf. Under U.S. labor law, must represent all employees in a particular bargaining unit, even those who may not wish to participate. Unions say it’s only fair that everyone chip in to cover the costs of representation.
Virginians, and people all over the country, need to recognize Labor Day for what it truly represents. It’s not about cookouts or the end of summer, it’s about the worker’s struggle. When Labor Day loses its meaning, we all lose something.
