30 Aug A Day for Labor

They built our country. They helped businesses large and small grow and succeed. At times they fought valiant battles to be protected against all-powerful oligopolies and at other times criticized for alleged corruption and misalignment of interests with their employers. Maybe Labor Day, just a week away, should be more about the worker than the union movement. Yes we all work, but of course the holiday, with all its barbecues and discount sales, is to celebrate those day-in and day-out middle class workers who manage retail stores, pick up garbage, teach our children, wait tables, build subways, risk their lives to fight fires and protect us, assist executives, plow farms, install technology and basically allow the engine of our economy to putter along and our society to be safer.

Teddy Roosevelt busted the trusts and the labor movement blossomed thereafter. As with all things, pendulums swing. Somewhere is the perfect balance between workers being treated fairly in all respects and businesses able to make a meaningful profit and take risk. The free market should allow these interests to settle in well, but alas special interests on both sides have at times brought power and leverage to one or the other.

There’s no denying the union movement is declining. According to Wikipedia, in 2013 just 11% of US workers were in unions vs. 20% in 1983. Some point to growing income inequality in the US and attribute it in part to the reduced power of labor. Others worry about more and more companies cutting back pension benefits. But with so much swirling in the current public discussion, from the impact of illegal immigration to SEC rules focusing more on CEO pay packages, along with a slowly growing economy, the pendulum may begin to swing back a bit to the American Worker.