Once again, another Labor Day has come and gone. Parade routes are no longer blocked off. Cookouts and picnics are over. Old women can no longer wear white. It's Thursday and the holiday is in the past. We may end up putting the garbage out a day later, but other than that minor inconvenience we will move on and we will not think of this particular Monday until next year.
Labor Day has been on my mind since May. That's because in May I had the pleasure of visiting Paris, France. This was not my first time to the city of lights but this particular visit will be inextricably linked to Labor Day in my mind forever. It was on this trip that I watched a fellow union member stand in front of a bus full of coworkers and brag about how easy it was for him to bow out of his labor union. He spoke eloquently and passionately. Did they know they could do this? Did they know they could stop union dues from being taken out of their paychecks? They should pass this information on to other workers... let them know they don't have to be a part of their union. Weren't they fed up with their union? He was a socialist when he was young and idealistic but he has since learned the merits of capitalism. He went on... and on... and on.
As I sat and listened to this man tout the merits of self-representation I happened to look at my watch and realize that this was May 1st, May Day. How funny, I thought, that here we were in Paris, one of the birth places of middle class revolution, on the very day they use to recognize labor rights and we were toying with the idea of dismantling the only bargaining tool we have as American workers.
In Paris, May Day is a national holiday commemorating the advent of the eight hour work day, officially introduced on April 23, 1919. Also known as Labor Day, it is considered an occasion to campaign for and celebrate worker's rights. What many people forget, is that the eight hour work day did not begin in France but rather it came about in the city of Chicago, where 40,000 workers went on strike to fight for a fair work day on May 1, 1886.
After two striking workers were shot and killed by police at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. the labor movement banded together and planned a protest in Chicago's Haymarket Square. The protest began peacefully, and was intended to inform workers about the eight hour work day plan. Organizer, August Spies, insisted protesters remain calm and not fall prey to the rumors that workers were there to riot or intimidate. Unfortunately, as police came to break up the protest, an unknown anarchist threw a pipe bomb at the police line, resulting in chaos. Police attacked workers, some of them armed, some of them unarmed.
Each account of the story is different but in the end eight police officers died in the Haymarket riot, all from bullet wounds. The number of worker casualties is not known. Eight protesters (anarchists) were arrested. Four were put to death, one committed suicide in prison, two were given life in prison and one got 15 years in prison. They came to be known as the Haymarket eight. They died for their belief in the eight hour work day. They were martyrs to the cause of labor rights.
I give this brief account of this significatnt historical event because I think back to that guy on the bus and wonder how much we will give away before we have nothing left to give. We even gave away our Labor Day. We don't celebrate it in May. This is because when Labor Day was made a national holiday president Grover Cleveland was worried that workers would relate it to the Haymarket riot and negative feelings of labor abuse would again rise to the surface. We gave away the holiday.
We certainly gave away the eight hour work day. It's rare that I meet someone who works an eight hour day. If they do work that mythical eight hour day they often don't make a livable wage and are forced to hold two jobs, working sixteen hours a day to make ends meet. No eight hour day for eight hours pay, that's for certain.
How much can we surrender? How far can we go? The idea of pensions has become a fairy tale, something my generation heard about but will never experience. Employers have reduced contributions to 401K retirement plans. Education reimbursement is a thing of the past. Workers get fewer paid sick days, fewer vacation days, more stringent and stressful work environments. Companies run on less workers with more work. That health care insurance... did it always have a copay? Was the deductible always so high? We give and we give and we give. Soon there will be nothing left for them to take.
I don't dare imply that unions are without fault, but remember this: a union is only as strong as its weakest member. Why work so hard and sacrifice so much only to throw it all away? I'd rather sit at the table than under it. I'd rather have the meal than the scraps. If we turn our unions over to those who scream "socialists" when we only demand a reasonable work day we will be choosing to sit at the feet of masters who may or may not feed us, may or may not kick us. If we turn our labor rights over to those who call us starry-eyed idealists when we only fight for dignified wages than we will not be worth the deaths of the workers who came before us.
I remembered this in Paris last May and I remember it here in Illinois this September. How relevant and foreshadowing are the final words of August Spies, the man who started it all. As he stood on the gallows he looked to the crowd and said "The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!" Now, as labor rights are slowly unraveled and dismantled, his silence is truly deafening.
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