“On Labor Day you should thank the 19th century union member that gave you things like the weekend, but recognize the often violent and unreasonable excesses of 21st century unions.”
Monday brings another three day weekend for Americans, and a good deal of barbecuing as well as free hot dogs at furniture stores. It also becomes a good moment to pause and reflect on the history and importance of labor movements in America. Modern day politics tends to give labor a bad name as union thugs who increase the cost of construction and jealously guard their unreasonably high pay have become the norm in society today. But in the past they represented the best of America, by improving safety and health standards while also increasing the standard of living for many.
The end of the 19th century brought rapid industrialization to America. This increased the efficiency of workers and lowered the cost of goods. America’s GDP doubled between 1860 and 1880, and then tripled again by 1920, creating vast amounts of wealth for all Americans. But there were problems as well, as crowded cities had sanitation problems, and low wage workers faced dangerous conditions among other issues.
For example, a fire at the Triangle Shirt Factory killed 145 workers because they were locked in the building by their managers during the work day. In other instances, coal miners had to live in a union town and shop in union stores. But they were paid so little they could, as the song says, “load 16 tons … and get another day older and deeper in debt … St Peter don’t call my soul because I owe my soul to the company store.”
A single employee often didn’t have the clout to change conditions. They could be fired for missing a shift and replaced by any number of the millions of low-skilled immigrants looking for jobs. But collectively, the unions could offset the increasing power of industrial and business giants to gain safety standards, higher pay, and protections against unjust firing.
Eventually, though, the pendulum can swing too far. Instead of workers uniting against injustice and trying to gain basic safety standards and decent pay, they jealously guarded what looked like lavish benefits. As early as 1903 Muckraker Ray Blacker wrote about violent coal unions. In an article called “Right to Work” he highlighted the unsafe and unsanitary working conditions of the mines. But he also criticized the union members who terrorized and attacked non striking workers.
They make labor so expensive that companies can’t expand, or companies turn to machines and computers.
By the 1950s the coal union went on strike and demanded such high wages and benefits that it made coal too expensive and unreliable. Companies started looking for oil based products instead, and coal companies looked for less expensive solutions such as automation. The union efforts were so good at destroying coal jobs, that Thomas Sowell and others called the labor president, “the world’s greatest oil salesman.”
Labor unions initially started to fight legitimately unsafe and even exploitative working conditions faced by hard working Americans. But they have morphed into something counterproductive and even damaging for the American worker. They make labor so expensive that companies can’t expand, or companies turn to machines and computers.
It’s no surprise for example, that the fight for 15-dollar minimum wage caused an increased reliance on self-service kiosks. Unions forced the company that makes Twinkie and Wonder Bread to move their own products on two different trucks. This created good union jobs, but forced the company out of business. Teacher unions in New York City force taxpayers to pay underperforming teachers not to teach.
The list can go on and on, but labor unions are not the valiant champions of the worker that they make themselves to be. They are often violently self-interested in their own profit to the point that they will destroy the industries and companies for which they work. On Labor Day you should thank the 19th century union member that gave you things like the weekend, but recognize the often violent and unreasonable excesses of 21st century unions.
