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Labor Day 2008: The One Day for America's Workers
by Region 8 Webmaster and LUPA Advisory Chair John Davis

Happy Labor Day to America’s workers; for one day a year – this is your day. The other 364 days belong to the corporate interest and the robber barons – but today, it is your day.

The past eight years have found a war waged on workers from multiple fronts. First there came the loss of quality of life from trade deals that either moved jobs out of this country or resulted in lower wages and benefits as the result of these deals.

After a lengthy fight to raise the minimum wage in this country, inflation has wiped out any real gains made by the raise. At $6.55, the federal minimum wage is worth 40 cents less per hour, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than it was a decade ago. The Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations from Rutgers University recently released a study concerning the plight of workers in the present economy. The study found when adjusted for inflation there had been no increase in real wages in the past ten years. It also showed that 10% of all Americans are either unemployed or under employed. This is an increase of 25% from just a year ago. The findings in the study were formulated from data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

So what went wrong? How did we get to the place where workers are more productive than ever, but fail to share in those gains? It is called corporate control of the government. Those in power take from the working and give to the rich. It is the appointment of an anti-union lawyer to head the National Labor Relations Bureau, it is the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court that consistently side with big business, it is a war that takes dollars out of our schools and families and places it in the hands of military contractors and it is a devalued dollar that has helped the oil companies create an excuse for doubling oil prices over a three year period.

This isn’t the first time America’s workers have fought a war waged against the robber barons. Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan pioneered the concept of using the system against workers over 100 years ago. These men manipulated the system to cut worker’s wages then, while lining their pockets with the fat of the land. According to “The People’s History of the United States” by historian Howard Zinn, Carnegie merged his steel company with Federal Steel to create US Steel. The company went public but sold $400 million more in stock than the company was worth. To cover the extra dividends they cut the worker’s wages to drive up profits.

A share of Carnegie’s profits were used to found the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club above Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The club contained 60 members of the richest industrialist in that part of the company. The club built a dam to provide a lake for the wealthy to fish from high above the city of Johnstown. In the spring of 1889 the dam broke flooding Johnstown and killing over 2,200 people. A group of club members created a fund to benefit the survivors to fend off lawsuits from the disaster and in the process kept the incident out of the media.

The Homestead Strike of 1892 was another example of how Carnegie took advantage of workers. Carnegie Steel decided to cut the wages of their workers to again boost profits. Carnegie left the country to avoid the publicity around the controversy. He left his right hand man Henry Frick, a noted anti-union manager, in charge (the same guy who orchestrated the Johnstown Flood fund to avoid lawsuits). The workers were locked out by Carnegie as Frick shipped in strike breakers and the thugs from Pinkerton Security. The locked out workers protested outside the plant as the strike breakers were shipped in from the outside. On July 06, 1892 a 300 member army from of thugs from New York and Chicago complete with machine guns were brought in by Pinkerton. Seven of the locked out workers and three of the Pinkertons were killed in the raid. The company eventually returned to production with imported non-union workers.

Carnegie’s reputation took a hit, but he threw enough money around to gloss over the damages by building libraries and concert halls. He was able to buy himself an historical label of industrialist rather than a robber baron.

Today the equity fund managers and corporate raiders use the same tactics to add to their trust funds at the expense of workers. Delphi’s Steve Miller is an example of the type of robber baron who uses the courts to fund his personal war on workers. Sadly, he is not alone there are many others, including the Vice-President of the United States Dick Cheney. The have their own media outlet in Fox News to spread the propaganda to sell their ideas and lies to the American public.

We now have another one waiting in the wings, with the self proclaimed “Maverick” in John McCain who wants to continue the anti-worker ways of the past eight years. We must turn back McCain and say no to another four years of corporate control.

So, to America’s workers I toast you on this one day of the year that belongs to you. The robber barons and corporate raiders own the other 364 days, but today is yours. Thank you to the billions of nameless, faceless workers who turn the wheel that make this country go.