The Working Man
Yesterday was Labor Day. It hasn’t always been a holiday in the United States. but it has been a holiday for as long as I can remember. I know it seems hard to believe, but there have been a number of detractors in recent years. Some have tied them to Labor Unions and others to socialism. My parents began teaching in 1967. They were married at the end of college in 1966. Dad continued in graduate school, but we will treat them like they were both public school teachers in Texas. The beginning salary for teachers then would have been somewhere between 4000 and 5000 dollars. We know the average teacher nationwide was 7.423 dollars in 1967. That would be the midpoint after 15 to 20 years of teaching and we know that Texas has always lagged behind most states and beginning teachers for considerably less.
The national average in 2023 dollars would be 44,558 dollars. The current national average salary is 66,745. That is due mostly to labor unions. My parents salary would have likely been somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 in 2023 dollars. The average starting salary in the area is actually closer to 50,000 here and higher in most other states.
They would tell us stories of how they collected Coke bottles to pay for groceries and how different businesses in town would give teachers steep discounts. They just understood that teachers were dramatically underpaid. Starting teachers aren’t being underpaid anymore. That’s due to unions and teacher associations. Furthermore, every teacher gets s a 45 minute conference period every day and gets a duty free lunch. These are legally mandated benefits that teachers fought hard for.
I am probably leaving some things out because I started teaching in 1997. A lot of the things I got from day one were probably not available to teachers like my parents. These are all due to unions and teacher associations. These associations also give teachers legal advice and services that are invaluable. They continually lobby the state legislatures for additional benefits, salaries, and legal protections. This is something teachers can’t do on their own. This is true of dozens of major industries. Workers fought hard for the 40 hour work week, minimum wage, child labor laws, safety regulations, another other benefits. Labor unions were invaluable in these efforts. Workers couldn’t have done this without organizing and collectively bargaining.
They paint the picture of unions fighting for unnecessary regulations and benefits so their workers can sit on their ass and do nothing. They paint the picture of unions driving up costs for consumers unnecessarily. They are communicating one message to most of us out loud and communicating another one under their breath. Unions helped the U.S. build a thriving middle class. They did this without succumbing to socialism. That’s the irony of this whole deal. European nations don’t need unions. They have already legislated so many worker protections and benefits that unions are scarcely needed. Unions keep those “onerous” regulations at bay. They prevent worker uprisings. We’ve seen them around the world, but for the most part we don’t see them here.
We’ve seen the impact of union busting. The middle class is shrinking and billionaires have seen a windfall. The sad thing is that people notice the stagnating wages and erosion of benefits, but they haven’t made the connection. Instead they are fighting culture wars, blaming immigrants, women, and people of color. They are blaming everyone but the people actually doing it. Instead they allow them to disparage Labor Day and call it a socialist holiday.
Thanks for this, Nick. As a single mom I would have been stuck in low paying “pink collar” jobs forever except for finally going into a non-traditional (for women) trade with a strong union. I support unions 100%.
1Best thing that happened to me was getting a Union job. I wish all employees had this stability in their lives. Affordable medical plan, pension (which I paid into), paid vacations, holidays and sick leave etc, !!! I felt proud to work for the State of California and my dedicated hard work reflected that.
As we are seeing, Conservatives really want to change the basis of American life, to make America run according to the conservative moral worldview in all areas of life. Which is their white, christian, republican way of life. Everyone else is simply NOT an American.
Oldie but goodie …
‘The Real Issues: A Wisconsin Update’
2“If the plan to kill public employees’ unions succeeds, conservatives will be effectively unopposed in raising campaign funding. This will mean a thoroughly conservative America in every issue area.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-real-issues-a-wiscons_b_828640
A large part of American voter, have an I.Q. lower than room temp. How many voted for Trump? Hell 40% voted for Hoover. They didn’t win,But look at the votes they got.
3Back in the 60s, the teachers’ union was one of the most powerful in Texas (yeah, I know: “in Texas” makes it a low bar). They fought for things like class sizes and physical plant that at least was not hostile to life. Like having a room with few windows, next to the incinerator. In other words, things good for the students as much as the teachers.
I never would have gone to college, but for a union scholarship from the steel mill where I was working. Thanks to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, that is. Nope, I was neither machinist or an airplane guy – I was a first a grinder, eventually a crane operator(*). So all of my colleagues at the university have learned not to badmouth unions around me.
(*) In between, I was a Wheelabrator operator. If anyone else here knows what that is, I’ll be extremely surprised.
4100% on target. I’ve belonged to three or four different unions, all good experiences.
5Although most of my union brothers thought that they could be rabid Republicans and still do OK. Never could understand the cognitive dissonance.
When I was on the faculty at TAMU, many years ago, my mama called me to ask how I was enjoying my day off on Labor Day. To her shock, we did not have the day off. Nope, might be a federal holiday but at least in those days, it was not a university holiday. Because Heaven forfend if that far-right bastion should do anything to honor unions! (Side note: what would have been called the Student Union at any other campus was called the Memorial Student Center. Because, you guessed it, no impressionable college students should be spending time in a UNION.)
6I’ll sing their praises forever. I was working at an elementary. It wasn’t a good fit for me, but the principal really didn’t like me and tried to get rid of me. I called my TSTA rep and they put me in touch with the free legal services they provide for members. The lawyer protected me and allowed me to stay in the job for one more year.
Predictably, the erosion of union/professional organization power has affected us too. We used to have three year contracts, but that was shifted to everyone being on a one year contract. I’m happy where I am and they are happy with me, but that puts teachers at the whim of administration. We are not allowed to have unions. TSTA is affiliated with NEA, but it is officially a professional organization. We don’t have the same rights as unions. We can’t strike. We really don’t have collective bargaining and that shows in our salaries and benefits.
7Laurel in California: the state legislators where I’m living decreed long ago that university staff, clerks, janitors, and students would have labor day off. But not professors, because professors aren’t workers.
What makes it especially ridiculous was that they also determined that state legislators got the day off. Apparently they regard themselves as laborers, which makes sense. “Laborer” is usually defined as “unskilled worker”.
Another point about the Texas legislative “laborers”: back in the 70s one of them claimed that teachers should be “dedicated”, and therefore not request decent pay. That was the actual argument he made, and he was seriously confused why everyone else thought that it was a ridiculous. Until he was asked if state legislators should also be dedicated, especially since it’s a part-time job that only meets up once every two years.
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