Whether you believe that Labor Day was the idea of Peter J. McGuire of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, or of machinist and secretary of the Central Labor Union of New York Matthew Maguire, there is no disagreement that in 1894 the day was institutionalized as a federal holiday. 

And ever since, Labor Day has been celebrated as a tribute to American workers and the achievements of their labor unions, including: the reduction of the work-week from the customary 7 days to 5 days; the reduction of the work day from the customary 12 hours to 8 hours; the prohibition against child labor; increased safety in the workplace; the establishment of unemployment insurance; the creation of social security; and the enactment of the minimum wage. 

Those watershed benefits were achieved by men like William Sylvis (Iron Molders), Eugene Debs (American Railway Union), Samuel Gompers (Cigar Workers/AFL), John L. Lewis (United Mine Workers/CIO), Walter Reuther (United Automobile Workers), George Meany (AFL-CIO), Cesar Chavez (United Farm Workers).   Most of those men and their followers endured bitter public criticism, as well as private and governmental threats to their personal freedom and safety.

Notably, all of them were trade or industrial unionists in the private sector.  And their achievements helped create the American middle class and make the United States the most productive nation in the world.

But over the past 30 years private sector trade and industrial union membership has eroded.  Despite the vast majority of workers still being employed in the private sector, union membership in that sector has eroded to the point where only 7.2 million of its workers are union members, while 7.6 million public sector employees belong to unions.  Union membership in the public sector is reported at 37% of all such employees, 5 times the rate of private sector workers.

Notwithstanding that dramatic rise of public sector union membership, however, none of the society-wide breakthroughs achieved by those earlier union leaders has been produced by their public sector, union-lite counterparts.   Instead, public sector union leaders seem content to ride the gravy train derived from both the freedom from market forces that is inherent in most government employment, and from colluding with craven and corrupt politicians to obtain compensation and benefits not available in the uber-competitive private sector.  At the same time, the middle class has shrunk substantially.

So on this Labor Day 2012 we remember those trade unionists of the past whose achievements created an economic reality that was good for the entire country.  And we echo the cautionary words of pro-labor New York governor Andrew Cuomo:   

“I respect the state workers and I respect their unions, but we simply can’t afford to pay benefits and pensions that are out of line with economic reality.” 

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