From the Fellowship Hall: A Brief Exploration of the Origins and Struggles of Labor

The following service was presented on 31 August, 2014, just before Labor Day.

Reading 1 (responsive): #586 The Idea of Democracy

As labor is the common burden of our race, so the effort of some to shift their share of the burden onto the shoulders of others is the great, durable, curse of the race.

I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.

This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.

Our reliance is in our love for liberty; our defence is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all people everywhere.

Destroy this spirit, and we have planted the seeds of despotism at our own doors.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and cannot long retain it.

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?

Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

-Abraham Lincoln

Reading 2 (responsive): # 567 To Be of Use

I want to be with people who submerge in the task,

Who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along,

Who stand in the line and haul in their places,

Who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud. Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.

But the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.

Greek amphoras for wine or oil, Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums but you know they were made to be used.

The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real.

-Marge Piercy

A Brief Exploration of the Origins and Struggles of Labor: A Readers Theater
by Shirley Rickett

Reader # 1: Rollo May, a leading psychologist of the 20^th century, stated in his works that our country is in danger of losing its myths, that is, our stories that are value-laden and hold meaning for our lives collectively, nationally. He claimed we had nothing to take the place of our dying myths. Holidays represent some of those myths. Labor Day is one of them. What does this holiday represent and mean to us in the 21^st century? For most of us, it means a three-day holiday to catch up on rest or the laundry, and maybe a backyard cook-out or picnic. Today we hope to present a brief overview of the origins and struggles of labor to help us remember.

Reader # 2: Medieval guilds were an important part of city and town life. They were exclusive, regimented organizations created in part to preserve the rights and privileges of their members and separate from civic governments. But since the functions and purposes of guild and civic government overlapped, it was not easy to tell them apart, especially since many well-to-do guildsmen were prominent in civic government.

Reader # 3: The most prominent guilds contained merchants and craftsmen. As early as the 10^th c. merchants formed organizations for mutual protection of their horses, wagons, and goods when traveling. Often a merchant guild would found a town by obtaining a charter. Craft guilds were people who shared an occupation, such as bakers, cobblers. stone masons. They existed for protection and mutual aid. Each guild was required to perform public services. They took turns policing the streets and constructed public buildings and walls to defend the town or city. By the 13^th c. a person had to go through three stages to become a guild man: apprentice, journeyman, master. The same structure is present in labor unions and colleges today.

Reader # 4: In protecting its members, guilds protected the consumer as well. Craft regulations prevented poor workmanship and all prices were regulated. Services for members could be said to compare to benefits some employers or unions offer today, or at least the idea is there: There was provision for funeral expenses for poorer members and aid to survivors, dowries for poor girls, a kind of health insurance and care for the sick. They watched over the morals of the members who indulged in gambling or usury and they were important for their contribution to the emergence of Western lay education.

Reader # 1: Pre-industrial workers from 1300 to 1750: Peasant life mixed both work and social activities. People in Europe lived on small plots they farmed for their own consumption. The traditional agrarian lifestyle and outlook held for generations. The Industrial Revolution changed lives faster than hundreds of years before.

Reader # 2: The Industrial Revolution: Nineteenth c. Britain saw many people in poverty, workers underpaid and overworked especially children. Charles Dickens drew attention to these conditions with his novel, Oliver Twist. In the U.S., too, factory owners had found a new source of cheap labor—children. A large part of the labor force was women and children who received a fraction of what men earned. Children usually worked a 70 hour-week. A child might work a 12—18 hour day, 6 days a week for $1.00. Some began younger than 7- years-old. Some worked in coal mines. Children tended machines in spinning mills or hauled heavy loads. Conditions were dark, damp, and dirty. There was no time for school or play. They often became ill. In 1810, two million school-age children who came from poor families had been turned over to mill or factory owners when their families could not support them.

Reader # 3: A glass factory in Massachusetts was fenced with barbed wire, “to keep the young imps inside.” These boys, under 12 years, carried hot glass all night for 40 cents to $1.10 per night. Church and labor groups were outraged. Britain was first to pass laws to shorten hours and raise the age children could work. The US took many years to outlaw child labor. By 1899, twenty-eight states had passed child labor laws. Many efforts to achieve a national law struggled through 1918 efforts, 1922, and 1924. In 1938 Congress passed the Fair Labor Standard Act. It fixed the minimum age to 16—14 for certain jobs after school and 18 for dangerous work.

Reader # 4: But some kinds of work remain unregulated. Migrant workers have no legal protection. Farmers may legally employ children outside school hours. Children pick crops, move around a great deal and receive little schooling. In 1999 more than 160 countries approved creation of the International Labor Organization to end the worst forms of child labor. The agreement became effective in 2000. According to the ILO the numbers of children exploited has dropped. Yet in 2006 -, there were still 218 million child laborers worldwide, and 126 million of that number engage in hazardous work.

Reader # 1: It was 1894 before a day for workers was declared by President Grover Cleveland making it a federal holiday after a prolonged railroad strike. Some records show Peter McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners as the first person to suggest a day to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.” Or it could have been a machinist, Mathew McGuire who founded the holiday. Mathew may have proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union.

Reader # 2: Whoever first proposed a Labor Day holiday, it came about through the vision of railroad tycoon George Pullman and the strife of workers who tasted a good life from a steady job. Pullman’s vision enacted America’s first planned, company town in Chicago’s South Side in 1880. Factory workers lived in row houses and assembled the iconic Pullman sleepers. Thousands of African American porters staffed passenger cars that traveled the country. The depression during the 1890s slowed production. Pullman laid off hundreds, reduced wages without reducing rent for the co-owned housing. Workers disobeyed a federal order and went on strike. Rail service was halted everywhere. The violence brought 12,000 federal troops to restore order. Days later the new federal holiday was declared to appease the workers’ failed strike.

Reader # 3: Even in good times the life of the 19^th century worker was never easy. Wages were low, hours long and working conditions hazardous. Little of the wealth which the growth of the nation had generated went to its workers. The laissez-faire capitalism which dominated the second half of the century fostered huge concentrations of wealth and power backed by a judiciary which time and again ruled against those who challenged the system. By this they were following the prevailing philosophy of the times. As John D. Rocefeller is reported to have said: “the growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest.” This Social Darwinism” as it was known, had many proponents who argued that any attempt to regulate business was tantamount to impeding the natural evolution of the species.

Reader # 4: The Triangle Shirtwaist fire in Manhattan, N.Y., 1911, one of the deadliest industrial disasters of early 20^th c, killed 146 workers who either burned to death or jumped to their deaths. It was largely preventable due to locked doors and neglected safety features. The coal miners strike of 1902 happened when 150,000 men who had had enough, wanted an 8 hour day, and the right to unionize. President Teddy Roosevelt tried arbitration. Owner, J.P. Morgan was having none of it and called the workers, “criminals.” The Homestead Strike against Andrew Carnegie’s steel mills created a deadly clash between striking workers and hired Pinkerton detectives who broke the back of organized workers.

Reader # 1: The struggles of labor in the 20^th c. and the new 21^st c. entail similar stories of workers and their struggle to achieve a job, some job security, good working conditions and fair pay for work. Some unions grew enormous and came to know corruption and political entanglements in the last century. Unions once represented more than one-third of US workers but decades of declining membership means they now speak for only 12 per cent. Membership remains strong among people who work for federal, local, and state government. Public sector employees are more than half of the more than 4 million union members in the US.

Reader # 2: One example of embracing diversity to stay alive could be said of the American Federation of Teachers. The AFT, once the urban teacher association that achieved collective bargaining in some states for teachers, has grown into a trade union representing one million workers in education and workers in health and public service. While the National Education Association, representing educators mostly in suburban areas throughout the US has lost 100,000 members since 2010 in part due to the wholesale business of charter schools that take public money, operate virtually free of oversight, fire veteran teachers, and can hire unqualified, uncertified teachers.

Reader # 3: Battles to increase the minimum wage have been prominent in this new century. The figure varies from state to state, some the same as the federal figure, some above, some below, and some states list no minimum wage. A new labor contract approved this year with a close vote by Boeing Machinists secured a major airplane contract for the Seattle area, but also moves workers away from pensions. National union leaders and the state’s governor hailed the contract approval—which defied local union leaders—as a boost to the economy. This from a company doing well financially. A local union leader called this a turning point in the labor movement. “Pensions were hard-fought battles to get in the first place. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

# # #

Reader # 1: We’ll close our exploration today with a memoriam of workers who have struggled and those who died in the name of having a voice in the world of work:

We remember and honor all of our military men in all the wars ever fought. We remember all workers who died on September 11, 2001 from janitors to office workers.

Reader # 2 We remember the countless people who helped organize workers to achieve better working conditions, a reasonable work day, and a living wage.

Reader # 3 We remember the Ludlow Massacre, and the 146 young girls and women who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire.

Reader # 4 We remember and honor the textile workers, cotton mill workers, the coal miners who go down into the earth every day, and the families who wait for them.

Reader # 1 We remember the child laborers of the Industrial Revolution.

Reader # 2 We remember teachers, librarians, firemen, policemen, construction workers, and those who were and are first responders in time of grave danger.

Reader # 3 We remember migrant workers and independent farmers, and the new prison workforce who work in crews for next to nothing. And we remember the families of these workers.

Reader # 4 We remember scientists, dentists, astronauts, computer programmers, teachers, orderlies in hospitals, workers who clean office buildings, motels, and homes, waiters, waitresses, taxi drivers, secretaries, doctors, lawyers, paramedics, street cleaners, garbage collectors, chefs and cooks, some of who work on the federal holiday, Labor Day.

Reader #1 And today we remember that 215 million children in the world are working today. We remember and acknowledge that 73 million of working children are less than 10 years old. Today. Right now.