Working Class Blues by Geoff Carter « The Pen in Hand Blog

Illustrated by Michael DiMilo

By Geoff Carter

We marched in the Labor Day parade yesterday. I fell in with my old union, the MTEA, as we lined up with firefighters, machinists, ironworkers, electricians, plumbers, and hospitality workers. Thousands participated.

It can be argued that what truly made America great was not the rugged individualism embodied by cowboys (and outlaws) or enterprising captains of industry. Nor was it American exceptionalism—which could be argued is a myth—or even free-market capitalism. What really made America great was a strong middle class, which would have been impossible were it not for the hard-fought workplace rights won by our labor unions. From the coalmines of West Virginia to the sweatshops of the Lower East Side of Manhattan to the slaughterhouses of Chicago, workers had to stand and fight to claim their fair share of the pie from the disgusting and all-too-consistent greed of a few depraved men. They made America what it is today—or what it just recently used to be.

And claim them they did. Although consistently demonized by politicians and captains of industry, unions allowed American to flourish during our Golden Age in the fifties and sixties. According to a report from The US Department of the Treasury, effects of unionization include higher wages for every worker (not only union members), greater civic participation (as seen in higher voting rates among union members), and guarantees of workplace equality.

A consumer economy like ours thrives when workers have more money to spend, so it stands to reason that as the consumer economy expands, it must hire more workers. So good jobs and a strong middle class create more jobs. According to Visual Capitalist, American consumers spend over 13.1 trillion dollars per year. Health care, utilities, and housing were the major service expenditures while groceries was the costliest goods category item.

Through the lenses of economic, humanitarian, and civic involvement, the advantages of supporting labor unions seem to greatly outweigh the advantages of attacking—and destroying—them, yet labor unions have always been the aim of the wealthy, those mine owners, meat packers, and factory owners who sought–and still seek–to line their own pockets through the blood and sweat of their workers. Six-day weeks, child labor, no overtime pay or health benefits spurred workers to organize, not only to earn a decent living, but to survive. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, a novel based on his muckraking reporting of the disgusting and squalid conditions for the immigrant workers in Chicago’s meat-packing industry shined a light onto the abuses of corporate greed, and in that particular case, spurred the passage of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act.

Other tragedies like the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 that resulted in the deaths of 146 garment workers led to reformation of workplace safety reforms, but to gain traction with owners and management, nascent unions had to sometimes pay the price of equal wages and equal rights with their lives. The Bay View Massacre, the Haymarket Affair of 1886, the West Virginia Coal Wars were only a few instances of unbridled corporate greed—bolstered by political support—that attempted to terrorize and cow the American worker. But by using the power of collective bargaining, solidarity, and the strike, labor unions won livable wages, a safe workplace, worker dignity, due process in the workplace, paid health insurance, and—last but not least—the weekend.

So, while we take a moment to thank those labor leaders and workers who fought for the rights we enjoy today, it’s incumbent on Americans—all Americans, union or not—to pay attention to what the Trump administration has been doing to federal workers and unions over the first eight months of his current administration. According to Huffpost, over 199,000 federal workers, or ten percent of the total government workforce, have either left their jobs, been laid off, or fired by DOGE, Donald Trump’s illegal “efficiency” enforcers. His DOGE croniesv have looted Social Security records and taken over entire governmental departments. The VA, NIH, CDC, and the Department of the Interior are only the tip of the iceberg. DOGE’s rampant and often ill-considered cuts at times have been embarrassingly walked back, as when DOGE discovered the energy workers they dismissed were responsible for managing nuclear waste and the only workers capable of doing so safely. The aim of this purge seems to be the destruction of the government itself.

Under the law, the president cannot fire federal workers without due process. This is a union protection. But, according to Eileen Sullivan of The New York Times, a district court recently upheld a Trump executive order calling for disregarding the contracted collective bargaining rights of federal employees. As a result, “over 445,000 workers saw their union protections disappear (New York Times).” Departments affected include the Coast Guard, EPA, FEMA, HHS, the VA, and even parts of ICE. This is nothing new, of course. Union-busting is the informal pastime—the sport of kings—for the one percent. In 2011, the Wisconsin legislature passed Governor Scott Walker’s Act 10, which ended collective bargaining for all state public employees. Teachers’ unions were specifically targeted, but the MTEA, Milwaukee’s largest teacher’s union, has managed to hang on by the skin of its teeth, and while it is not nearly as powerful as it once was, it is still fighting for teachers’ rights.

Labor leaders fear that Trump’s epic level of union-busting will eventually work its way over to the private sector. Eric Loomis, a labor historian at the University of Rhode Island stated, ‘“What this does is signal to private sector employers that they can go to war with the unions’ and not face legal consequences (New York Times).’”

Not only are these misguided policies hurting American citizens, our economy, and our civic protections, they will seriously hamper, or even eliminate, government services. There have already been serious cuts to staffing and hours at our national parks. FEMA response to the horrific flooding in central Texas was spotty at best—incompetent at worst. Remaining federal workers may be reluctant to call out their superiors or policy decisions for fear of losing their jobs.

While his illegal union-busting may seem less consequential than other Trump actions, like his evisceration of the Department of Education, the NIH, USAID, or the Social Security Administration, and especially the deconstruction of the federal government, these attacks on unions signal yet another consequential attempt to strip Americans of their rights.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our rights to due process and freedom of speech. Our rights to assemble peacefully. Our right to a free press. Our children’s right to a free and fair education. Our right to equal rights under the law. Our right to choose our own representatives.

Attacks on our labor unions are attacks on all these rights. Some of them—including our right to vote and our right to due process—are already under attack. Masked ICE officers—thugs—are kidnapping and arresting American citizens, deporting and imprisoning some without charging them.

These are all parts of the same puzzle that will eventually, when finished, reveal an America dominated by robber barons, one-percenters, and corporate greed. Unless we do something to stop it, our workers will once again be working and dying in squalor, fear, and desperation.

Labor Day is a reminder of how the American work rose up against the oppressive reins of their corporate masters and built decent lives through a strong middle class. We cannot let that be taken away. We cannot go back.

Working Class Blues

By Geoff Carter

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By Geoff Carter

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