It’s not easy to find a holiday that crosses so many boundaries: racial, religious, ethnic, generational, and gender lines. Your political party, favorite color, married or single, homeowner or renter, blue collar or white collar workers, years of education, driving an SVU or compact car—all matter very little. For sure, it’s not easy to find a holiday that most Americans celebrate in similar ways, usually involving a hot dog or two…whether it’s all-beef or tofu. Yes—Labor Day is a rarity: A holiday we can agree on.
Congress created Labor Day in 1894 by making the first Monday in September a national holiday. But it only did so in response to the death of 34 striking Pullman workers from the American Railway Union at the hands of U.S. Army soldiers and marshals.
Then there’s the Labor Day Parade. It’s not held on Labor Day. That’s usually when so many of us are sad about summer’s end and reserve the day to get in those last rays of summer sun, a swim at the beach, flipping burgers on the BBQ, watching the U.S. Open tennis match on TV, or hunting for “Back to School” sales. Instead, the parade is held a week later.
New York City’s Labor Day has some major distinctions: It’s not only the largest one in the nation, but also the oldest. The parade was originally organized by the New York City Central Labor Council in 1882, when an unheard of number of workers—25,000—took off from their jobs in celebration of worker solidarity and pride, and marched from Union Square to City Hall. Through the years, Labor Day and the parade have come to symbolize the long-lasting presence and indestructible power of the labor movement, despite the efforts by many in corporate America who decry unions as contributing to driving up production and service costs—and affecting their bottom line. They, and some others in power who fear the power of our unity, are simply trying to do us in.
And it’s working. Currently, union membership is at an all-time low of only around 10.7% nationwide (equaling one in 10 workers) compared with peak years of the mid-1950s, when membership was 40% of all American workers (or four out of every 10 workers). New York State leads the nation with the highest percentage of union workers, nearly 24%. Of that number, nearly 70% are public sector workers, with African Americans making up the largest component of that group.
At Teamsters Local 237, we understand the value of unity, and our commitment to it is both practical and moral. We know, for example, that non-union workers earn an average of 20% less than union members. We know, too, that the 40-hour work week, health benefits, paid vacation and family leave, and $17 an-hour minimum wage are just some of the hard-fought—and won—battles. We also know that workers’ rights and civil rights are unquestionably intertwined. Let’snot forget that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis when he joined striking sanitation workers—men who made $1.65 an-hour and were treated by their bosses like the garbage they collected.
Dr. King believed that “[t]he labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standard of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers.”
It seems that many average Americans are starting to agree—again. In fact, the approval rating of labor unions has recently been on the rise. Some have speculated that the COVID crisis helped with this current trend. Too many Americans learned the hard way that many of our government institutions and leaders were ill-prepared for the catastrophes so many endured. They came to rely on their unions to distribute the face masks, provide health benefits, and lend them and their families a sympathetic, compassionate ear.
This increase may also have a link to the elusive quest of achieving the “American Dream.” Coined by historian James Truslow Adams during the Great Depression, the phrase symbolizes the desire for a better future that could be obtained in this country through hard work. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his 1933 inaugural address, famously declared about the challenges of troubling times: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, ” and continued to emphasize the spiritual qualities underlying the American Dream by saying, “Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement.”
However it is defined, for some, the American Dream remains just a dream; for others, especially many new immigrants in the current surge of migration, the Dream has become a nightmare. Interestingly, in 1997, 72% of Americans thought the American Dream was possible. More recently, studies indicate, “not so much.”
Here’s where labor unions come in. Just like our role in helping to build the middle class in America, we are both the ramrod and equalizer…and the bridge to the American Dream. We fight for the rights of workers while helping to create a level playing field where the American Dream is not the sole property of the corporate 1%. We help give everyone a chance. We help give everyone hope.
This is why we march. We will join our union brothers and sisters in the upcoming Labor Day Parade to send a strong message to our elected leaders and to the public at-large: “You can bash us. You can try to bust us. We are not going away. We’re labor strong, celebrating our solidarity and pride on a day unlike any other.”
Gregory Floyd is president of Teamsters Local 237 and vice president at Large on the General Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.