This newspaper recorded the events of Labor Day 1904 with unusual enthusiasm, describing a parade of more than 2,000 union members in Bangor as “filled with good-fellowship and triumph … a potent example typified in thousands of silent, stalwart men, of the strength and force and dignity which labor organization brings.”
In particular it admired the keynote address — “admirably clear, concise and forceful illuminated by shafts of keen, at times almost satirical wit” — delivered by J.F. Sheehan of Massachusetts, who laid the groundwork for the development of unions:
“It is often said that the union men of America are discontented,” Mr. Sheehan said. “If this be so — and I deny it not — then it is a virtue and not a vice. The discontent that urges a man to rise above the lowly station where his lot is cast; that makes more money, better homes, nobler men and truer women; that has shortened the hours of labor and improved the scale of pay; that has given the United States the political liberty and social equality which it enjoys now; and which lastly, the trade unions of the land are going to ferment until it has equalized the scale between employers and employed until the American working man can stand up to all the world and say: ‘I am a man, with a man’s feelings and a man’s rights; I will be the faithful employ of any; but the unconsidered slave of none’ — this discontent, I say, must be hailed as a glory rather than as a sin!”
Ever since President Grover Cleveland signed an act making the first Monday in September a legal holiday to honor America’s workers, Labor Day has been a holiday of conflicting themes, an odd mixture of the somber and the frivolous. Even 19th century labor organizer Peter J. McGuire, credited with conceiving Labor Day, admitted the holiday designed to honor work was timed to “come at the most pleasant season of the year, nearly midway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, and would fill a wide gap in the chronology of legal holidays.”
It is a gap filled with gusto. Americans, whether watching the Labor Day telethon, a worthy event to be sure, stock car races or baseball or, better still, enjoying the last real summer weekend outdoors with family and friends, seem always to enjoy themselves. Where once there were parades, barbecues now rule the day.
Keeping in mind Mr. McGuire’s intent; today also provides the opportunity to assess how far the labor force has progressed, or failed to progress, over the years. The trend is not encouraging.
Unions today — particularly those representing public-sector workers — are fighting a nationwide contempt, a sentiment often whipped up by Republican politicians. Organized labor has been demonized as the reason, at least in part, for the economic woes that still rule the nation.
The connection between organized labor and wages generally was made clear a couple of years ago in the annual report “The State of Working America” by Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein and Sylvia Allegretto of the Economic Policy Institute. They measured the decline of labor from about one-fourth of the working population a generation ago to about one-eighth by 2004.
Their conclusion is worth recalling today:
“This falling rate of unionization has lowered wages, not only because some workers no longer receive the higher union wage, but also because there is less pressure on non-union employers to raise wages,” they wrote. The difference in wages and benefits between union and nonunion workers then was $30.76 an hour versus $18.11.
Overcoming nearly stagnant wages will take a lot more than the festivities planned for today, but helping workers to the fruits of their labors never has been a picnic.
This falling rate of unionization has lowered wages, not only because
some workers no longer receive the higher union wage, but also because
there is less pressure on non-union employers to raise wages,” ~~~~ Editor
Bullcrap. Wages are down because the business environment sucks!!
High wages are a byproduct of a good economy not a cause of one.
Do you find it ironic that the titans of industry have always associated unions with communism, yet they are now sending their manufacturing jobs to a communist nation and still trying to blame the unions for it? “Free trade” has destroyed our economy, unless of course, you are in the top 1%. Then things have never been rosier. Small businesses can only thrive if their customers are making a living wage and have the extra money to do business with small businesses. I own a small business and I can not raise my prices because the wages are going down for my potential customers and they have less and less to spend after the necessities. “Free trade” and stagnant wages only benefit the top 1% and no one else. Regardless of which side you are on and what your opinion is about how we got into this mess, we simply can not continue to send our jobs and our money to a communist nation. Eventually we will run out of jobs and money. My dog knows enough about economics to grasp this concept. Too bad my dog has more brains than the dim wits we have in Washington.
But Cheescake thinks the only necessary purchasing is between businesses and that consumer buying is irrelevent. I am not sure where he thinks the end product eventually goes after all the businesses have bought from other businesses.
Not what I said. I guess it was a little above you.
Private and PUBLIC unions are two entirely different animals. When public unions push to vote in their allies they are getting an unfair advantage and the losers are the taxpayers. Because those same allies are then beholding to the unions. And in many cases dependent on them for reelection.
“Small businesses can only thrive if their customers are making a living
wage and have the extra money to do business with small businesses.”
Exactly. That only happens when your consumers are employed. Where do they get this employment? Certainly not from other unemployed.
Access to easier credit would help but the finreg bill has stifled that.
The other side of the free trade coin is what are the political/ military ramifications of ending free trade? Remember WW2 in the Pacific started because we “embargoed” Japan. I don’t know the answer to that do you?
No, I do not have the answer to your question cheesecake. I do like to think that I can at least spot the actual problem though. I will also stand by my conviction that “free trade” and wages stuck in the early 90’s only benefits the top 1% and no one else. We need more sensible trade policies that take into account our standard of living versus that of the nations we trade with. Again, I do not have all the answers. But, I do know that if we go head to head with communist China, our standard of living is going to go down. It already has. We are the first generation of Americans to have a lower standard of living than our parent’s did and I shudder to think what kind of mess we are leaving our kids and grandkids
I have a teenager and I understand what you mean. All I can do is try to make certain my child has the skills necessary to live in his new world. Understanding a foreign language is most important I think. (Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Spanish)
I think we/they need to face these challenges face on. Protectionism, eventually, is a losers game. That is not to say that trade shouldn’t be fair. But that is a tough cookie also. What is fair about Canada subsidizing their lumber makers or Chinas companies being owned in part by their government? It is funny that those two countries are doing relatively well while supporting their business and we have a President that attacks ours.
You might want to stop and consider for a moment what “We are the first generation of Americans to have a lower standard of living than our parent’s did.” We did that (I among them) by borrowing from future generations. If our children will live harder lives than we did is it because we stole from them to live well now?
Perhaps our standard of living should go down. We as a society spend more frivolously then any country in the world. Most of our poorest are wealthy in comparison to the poor in a third world country. Let’s face it. We do not appreciate what we have.
What is our country’s motto now? “A smartphone, a big screen and an X box in every home”? Not exactly necessities.
You are talking about incidental expenses when it comes to electronics. I am talking about the average American’s ability to buy a home or a new car. Or have affordable health care or a savings account.
My point was that we as a people don’t know how to save. We blow through whatever is in that savings account always looking for instant gratification without a thought to the future. Hey man, if you can only put 20.00 a month in the savings you do it. You don’t go to Gamestop and buy another stupid video game. Not everyone that is doing well started out wealthy. They sacrificed. They realized that they had to go without to have more in the future. You get that House or that car 20 bucks at a time. You can’t expect to make 12 bucks an hour and have the world served to you on a silver platter. You can’t expect to keep three credit cards maxed out(Once again because of that need for INSTANT GRATIFICATION), you being barely able to keep up the payments and yet expect someone to give you a home loan.
I think the average American is far better with money than you give them credit for. They have to be. Their paychecks are shrinking and the cost of living keeps going up. While instant gratification is a problem, it is not the death knell of our economy. Stagnant wages and “free trade” are.
Ya know what? You are a symptom off the problem Personal responsibility is a thing of the past. Of course there are plenty of people taking responsibility. I don’t know if you live in a bubble but there are PLENTY THAT DON”T. Do you dispute this? Are we all just victims? Are you telling me a good portion of the population doesn’t just live for the day piling up unreasonable debt. Plenty of people that don’t celebrate every new credit card offer by running out and maxing it out? Those people do exist. THEY ARE NOT ALL VICTIMS. .
I’m getting a vibe from you that the government and big business are responsible for every individuals bad decision. THEY AREN’T
Knowing this I can imagine what shape you’re in and how many people you blame for it. Either that or you’re some kid that hasn’t had to deal with life yet but thinks they have all the answers.
Please, You don’t speak for all of the underprivileged. YOU DON’T KNOW THEM.
“a voice in the crowd”,
Yea , whatever.
I am a symptom of the problem? lol. I am 52, a father, and a grand father. I have no mortgage, no vehicle payments, no credit card debt, and I have a savings account. I have been self employed most of my life and probably payed more in taxes than you have earned. Jump to conclusions much? lol.
China is the untimate “right-to-work” state(comunist state). Unions are not allowed. Period.
Ther are no workers rights there,except, you have the “right- to- work” for very low wages.
Period.
The high cost of low wages.
The “business environment” sucks because demand is down. I believe your supply-side theory has been thoroughly disproven by the gutting of the middle class over the past 30 years. Happy Labor Day.
Happy Labor day to you also!!
Labor Day is now also celebrated as National Empty Chair Day in honor of the current president, who has been disgracefully MIA on jobs, jobs, jobs.
I like that.
And Republican’s have come with so many ideas, 1 lower taxes on the “job creators”.
There is far more to it than that…. Obama thinks we can regulate a new economy. All business exists because of government. “You didn’t build that!!”
As a typical partisan blogger you are factually misrepresenting what the President said.
You lose all credibility when you take the hyper-partisan tack of the President saying that small business owners didn’t build their businesses.
He said that small business did not build the roads, bridges and other infrastructure that they used to create their business nor did they educate the workers they hire or create the police and firefighters who protect their businesses. We, the PEOPLE, did that.
Read the full speach and tell me that the President said what you are implying he said.
So what? What is different about that? Does that then mean the government owns my business? Should it fail is the government going to pick up the tab? Of course not.
It doesn’t matter what he said or how he said it, his policies have betrayed his words. He believe unequivocally that government drives business. He is wrong. He is hopefully learning that with each new 8% unemployment report.
Denying individual initiative in anything is just plain wrong.
I wold like to also point out that if mine was a hyper-partisan attack on Obama yours was a hyper-partisan defense.
Thing is, I agree with you. I understand what he meant but he really does give off this sentiment that government can be everything to everyone. That government can solve our ills and I just don’t see how that can happen.
I’m liberally social.
Explain to me what the President’s plan to improve the economy is?
A tax holiday? throwing good money after bad into questionable investments?
Those are not big ideas and will do nothing to change our course.
Give me a reason to believe President Obama can handle this challenge.
One ground rule. Calling the other guy names and telling us how much you despise them isn’t answering the question.
Nice try, but you lose credibility when you spout the Republican talking points and claim to be liberal.
See, all you could do was deflect. THAT’S NOT AN ANSWER.
I’m PRO-GAY MARRIAGE.. (States issue , nothing to do with the Presidency)I’m Pro-choice, (SETTLED LAW, Romney has long acknowledged this)I’m Agnostic (Religion doesn’t play a role in how I vote one way or the other)Explain to me what President Obama is going to do to improve the economy?
You want my vote? Then tell me why you should have it?
I’m not calling names I’m not following party lines I just want answers.
I’ve explained why I wouldn’t have a problem voting for Romney because SOCIAL issues are a false trail. This election is about the economy. Don’t you agree?
1904 was a long time ago.
Not so long ago that the hard right has an unquenched urge to return to those times when unions didn’t get in their way to work people to death.
And yet the Right would like to take us back to before unions and their benefits and protections existed.
Funny all those great unions have done nothing but drive jobs to other countries. The union says they are for the worker but to work at a union you are forced to join them and pay them if you want to or not.
Yes, those commie unions keep forcing the factory owners to move their factories to a communist nation. It is all the fault of unions that we are over $1 trillion in the hole to a communist nation. It all the fault of the commie unions that we now have a $350 billion trade deficit with a communist nation. How is it possible that a mere 7% of the workforce has so much control over our economic destiny? Labor is not the problem, greed on the part of the owners is.
If you envy people who have advocated for themselves and obtained wages and benefits that are better than your own, you have two choices:
1) badmouth them and do your best to slash their salaries, destroy their benefits, and make sure no one else gets to rise to that level, while bowing to corporations (they’re “people” now, after all) and pledging to take whatever abuse they ask you to endure; OR
2) join forces with other workers and advocate for higher wages and better benfits for all of you.
#1 provides instant gratification. It works on the same principle as the crabs who claw at their fellows who were just about to escape from the bucket, and bring them down to their own level.
#2 is more difficult, takes longer, and requires taking personal responsibility.
Bingo! Bless you, Liz.
I think organized labor is fine and the piece about the furor over the public employee unions is this. In Maine, we cover all public employees in a defined benefit pension plan. The actuarial computation that goes into the funding formula includes future workers entering the system as well as employee/employer contributions into the system. Social security works the same exact way. Today’s retiree’s are living much longer than the actuarial assumptions made years ago causing huge funding shortfalls. Business saw this and did away with their defined benefit plans in favor of money purchase plans and 401k plans. That stabilized business – government chose to cave to the unions and here we are. I don’t know what the solution is but the BDN editorial staff ought to at least inform its readers of the problem and let them decide who is demonizing who instead of making it sound like any opposition to union demands is mean spirited tea party republicans against organized labor.
Is it demonizing to state a fact? The Tea Party is against organized labor. They make no bones about it. If you are not fortunate enough to have made it through college and get a great job with good benefits or are born one of the few that have the gift and luck of making a fortune from your enteprenurial skills, or possibly inherited your wealth.
You are just one of the average Americans that works hard at their tasks and would like to earn a living wage that will allow them to possibly buy a house and raise their family with the fruit of their sweat equity. You may not be a union member but the existance of unions raises your income and benefits. Remove unions and your benefits will disappear as rapidly as they were won with the blood of the early union movement.
THEY ARE AGAINST PUBLIC UNIONS.
Private unions are an entirely different animal.
When Private unions go to the bargaining table they are at odds with ownership. Therefore there are concessions to be made.
The history of Public unions is that they help someone get into office and therefore own the person. Which in turn leads to little to no push back on union demands.
If what you say is true then we wouldn’t have a Republican majority in the Maine house and senate. We wouldn’t have a Republican Governor who is quite open about his dislike of unions and union workers.
Look, I can’t speak to individual’s opinions on private unions. Although I’ve been part of one union and saw how they protected employees to the point of the absurd I’ve never had an issue with them.
Maine is a very small state with SMALL ideas. Look at many of the larger states that are having fiscal problems due to union pensions and benefits. Deny it if you wish but they got there because the unions were allowed to take and take. It’s ironic that we pick on teacher’s unions I will say. They should be the highest paid and yet they are just about the lowest paid union members. We value other jobs that require less intellect more then we do those that shape our future. It’s a shame.
Look at California,Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, They have had to take from the unions because their demands were killing the states. And have had the SUPPORT OF THE CITIZENS.
I think if you check around the state where unions are representing public employees that none of the employees are getting rich. Most have ‘No Strike’ clauses in their contracts. Which results in long painful negotiations drug out by management. In my last job we negotiated for 2 years while the counties attorney spent an average of a month to rewrite a paragraph in the old contract. Charging the county big bucks. I have heard that they are doing the same song and dance routine with this round of negotiations in a new contract. They are into their 3rd year of negotiaions.
As I said, Maine in a small state with small idea., No one is suggesting union members are getting rich But they are doing better then the private sector on low end jobs. The least intelligent are making more in the Public sector then they are in the private. Upscale positions make less in public life then they could in Private..
So would be the answer to do away with all unions? How low would wages and benefits have to go to satisfy the desires of Corporations to move their manufacturing back to the US? Are you or any other Americans eager to work for what they pay labor in SE Asia, Central America, or the next big 3rd world center for manufacturing Africa?
30 years ago they started touting that we were moving to a service economy. They never seemed to get around to exactly who we would be servicing. Thousands worked their way through college to become computer programers only to have their jobs shipped to India.
We need to stop blaming labor union or non-union for the reason that manufacturing has moved out of the country.
IMO the main reason that they moved is because we made it safe for them to move. Our military has secured the seas. Our miltary has secured the airways. Our military has pretty much guaranteed that Corporations can set up almost anywhere in the world.
The Corporations are operating like 3rd world slash and burn farmers. If the Chinese labor force starts to demand a little larger piece of the pie for their work, they will abandon them in a heart beat and move to another forest.
Private unions have the ability to strike. Many in the public sector have ‘no strike’ clauses written into their contract. Police, Fire, Corrections, etc.
You didn’t reply to a single thing that I posted. I was simply putting a few facts out there, apparently something you are not interested in.
Many workers in Maine create there own foodless basket by rejecting unions to start with. For some reason, many Mainers enjoy working for less. I have heard many of then say they aren’t worth the “big bucks” and think unions are horrible. You figure it out. I can’t.
Molly Ivins once said ignorance is the root of all evil. Might she have said it’s the root of self-delusion as well?
Some people love the word delusion, hate, misinformed, etc, without knowing the background of who they are insulting. I get a kick out of narrow minded know it alls, who love talkathons without the wisdom to back it up. Go ahead, make my day. I’m loving it!
The experience in Maine is that unions cause business to leave Maine. The unions drag their butts out of state soon after.
I have never heard anyone say that they aren’t worth the “big bucks”.
LOL, spend some time in Washington County and you can hire people for 8 or 9 bucks an hour. Good many will tell you that’s pretty good money.
JERRY BROWN The Governor of the SIXTH LARGEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD isn’t a Republican. Nor is the Mayor of Stockton California. And yet both have been put in a postiion of having to cut unreasonable benefits bestowed upon them by officials the unions themselves have put in office.
Government employment is simply a byproduct of the need for personel to deliver services. The motive of government should NEVER be to look to employing more people.
Union or non-union more and more workers simply are not making enough weeks pay to get by and pay all the bills of what it takes to have a rent or house, a car, and a family of four grocery bill. They go for a few food stamps, some heat assistance, maybe MaineCare, earned income to pay the big expense in the spring. But the difficulty of making a real living in Maine, is apparent, underestimated, many politicians are unfair in their judgements and these hard working people are taking a real beating mentally. I feel the breaking point is going to arrive, I urge all to stay, even if it means living in your car.