Labor Day 2017

This morning in pre-dawn darkness outside of the MacDonald’s on Sand Lake Road here in Orlando there were a huge group of minimum wage employees, carrying signs, chanting for action to raise the working wage there to $15 an hour and bring in a union for the employees of these franchise stores.

The labor movement goes on.  Today’s unions are less visible in manufactured plants and more visible in our service industries-nurses and hospital employees, teachers, police and firemen and a growing element in restaurants as those workers strive for living wages.

This history of unions goes back to the turn of the last century, where they fought against “company towns” or places where companies owned the buildings and stores and kept their workers in debt to them while working for tiny wages. They fought against the practice of child workers, young boys digging in coal mines or girls sewing dresses in sweatshops instead of going to school.

In the post-World War Two era, unions helped the American economy become the strongest in the world. Unions guaranteed that their workers would be middle class people who could afford to buy houses, cars, and put their kids in college.  They also helped non-union office workers and managers grow their wages and salaries and benefits. 

I’ve been fortunate to have been a member of three unions-the Teamsters in Disney Parking, the Transportation Communications Union in Disney Watercraft, and as a teacher the Orange County CTA for the past thirteen years. During that time I was blessed to be involved in union activities as a shop steward and contract negotiator at Disney, and at my high school’s union board, which worked with the principal to improve conditions for teachers there. I saw firsthand where unions defend workers and teachers being accused or discriminated against, and where they negotiate better working conditions, healthcare, and wages.

A lot of people think that unions are irrelevant today. Their membership has declined as industrial plants have been closed or automated. So-called “right to work” laws, designed to weaken unions, have lessened their impact. Laws have even been legislated by pro-business legislatures to ban or limit union activities like the right to strike.

The result of union weakness has been stagnating employee wages, record CEO salaries, and increased corporate profits. Income equality in America is now at its highest point since the late 1920s, right before the stock market crash and Great Depression. We now have a new category of American, the “working poor,” who are people who work full time but still need government benefits to support their families.

American workers are working harder than ever for less money and weaker benefits. Today’s American workers badly need their own voice in this economy, so I am heartened to see young people and older restaurant workers gathering at MacDonald’s to raise their voices and demand a piece of the American Dream that we should all have a right to work for.  Happy Labor Day, all.