Adrianne Shropshire

The Labor Day Blues

It's been a depressing week. Between Katrina anniversary reports and the Census Bureau there has been little to feel good about as we approach our annual holiday in celebration of workers in this country. With parades, sermons from the pulpit, and splashy union colors at rallies, Labor Day is supposed to remind us of the power and dignity of workers in our country and provide us with one day where we can project the countries respect for its working class citizens. Yeah, well, not so much.

With headlines like "Downward Mobility" and "The Falling Paycheck" and choice quotes like:

"After huddling with his economic team at Camp David this month, President Bush emerged from a meeting and, flanked by advisers - including the secretaries of labor, commerce and the Treasury - announced to reporters, 'Things are good for American workers.' ...The comment is preposterous."

"The most important contributor to higher profit margins over the past five years has been a decline in labor's share of national income."

"And then there's the working stiffs ... who just don't feel like they're getting ahead despite the fact that they’re working very hard. And there are a lot more people in that group than the other group."

No city in metropolitan New York made the nation's top 10 in median income, but several were among its poorest. Newark, at $30,711, ranked seventh from the bottom, just below New Orlean... Buffalo was third from the bottom

Poverty is suddenly a close reality for working people across the country. A report on poverty initiatives by the Center on Law and Social Policy says, "Among the reasons why poverty may be gaining attention is the increasing concern among many Americans that at some point they and their families may experience poverty". Labor, both organized and unorganized, is under attack as never before by those hell bent on making the worlds working and middle classes equally poor. Income equality of a different sort.

So this Labor Day the American labor movement (along with the rest of the country) should certainly recommit to advancing workers' rights, reforming labor law, and changing national political leadership to one that understands that America's priorities must evolve beyond fostering global chaos and mastering the ability to ignore the signs of unrest at home. But it must also embrace as never before the struggle to reduce poverty and it's affects in our society. Some day soon we want to see bumberstickers that say not only "The Weekend: brought to you by the labor movement" but "The Guaranteed Income: brought to you by the labor movement", "Universal Healthcare: brought to you by the labor movement", and "Full Employment: brought to you by the labor movent!".

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Posted at 10:42 AM, Aug 30, 2006 in
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