May 1 is celebrated as Labor Day around much of the world. Although in the United States our official labor holiday is in September, May Day commemorates an 1886 campaign by American workers to achieve an eight-hour work day. That year on May 1, 80,000 people marched through the streets of Chicago in support of the eight-hour day, led by union activists Albert and Lucy Parsons and their children.
That parade was peaceful, but violence broke out a few days later. Police used gun fire to break up a conflict between workers on strike from a McCormick reaper plant and strike breakers, resulting in deaths and injuries. Then at a rally to protest the police violence, someone threw a bomb as a troop of police approached, killing seven people and injuring many more. Mass arrests of union leaders and suspected radicals followed, many of them immigrants. Four men, all anarchists, were ultimately executed, although there was no evidence of their guilt.
Over the next several decades, many unionized workers did win an eight-hour work day, often after prolonged strikes. In the first third of the 20th century, the Pacific Northwest witnessed strikes and sometimes violence in the mines, mills and shipyards. Finally, in 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, setting the 40-hour week as the norm for all American workers.
It’s easy for us to take for granted the workplace standards won by those early labor activists. Not just the eight-hour workday, but also a ban on child labor, minimum wages, basic safety standards and the right to bargain collectively are all now enshrined in law. But first these policies were all fought for by people who risked not only their jobs, but jail, deportation, and in some cases, their lives.
We’ve made a lot of progress since 1886, but history has a funny way of cycling back on us. That first Labor Day occurred at a time of economic and political turmoil. Markets were increasingly globalized. Mass immigration seemed to threaten American identity. Workplace standards — or lack thereof — left many working families struggling. Terrorists threw bombs and the government cracked down on civil liberties in the name of greater security.
In other words, it was a time in many ways like our own.
This is a good year to commemorate those early crusaders who helped build the prosperity and strength of the United States by making sure that the majority of working people were justly rewarded for their labor, and had time for their families and communities. It is also a good time to take stock of where we’re going and make the changes needed to ensure we stay on course.
Over the past several years we’ve seen wages for many working people erode against inflation, along with declines in health coverage and other benefits. We’ve seen two big wins for working families with paid family leave programs approved in Washington and New Jersey, but overall a gap is growing between families’ needs for time and the demands of jobs.
Americans are rightly concerned about security and terrorist attacks, but our current influx of immigrants is no more threatening to “Americanism” than were earlier waves of Irish, Germans, Scandinavians and Asians. Numerous studies have shown that the majority of immigrants have jobs, pay taxes and contribute to our well-being as a nation. Is building a wall along our Mexican border really the best use of our national resources? And does imprisoning people without charges and eroding our civil liberties really make us safer?
We probably won’t be seeing 80,000 marching through the streets of any cities in Washington or any other state this May 1, but local labor groups are promoting two May Day events. The Longshoremen, Machinists and other groups are organizing a united labor rally and protest of the Iraq war on the Seattle waterfront at 1:30 p.m. Later in the day, a second march will demonstrate the united concerns of workers and immigrants.
Some of the specifics have changed, but we’re still confronting many of the same basic conflicts that Americans have been grappling with since before that first May Day in 1886.
Marilyn Watkins, policy director of the Economic Opportunity Instititue (www.eoionline.org), writes every other Wednesday. Her e-mail address is marilyn@eoionline.org.
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