Today is Labor Day. Most view it as once last Summer picnic . Few recognize it as a day to honor American labor. Even here in the Lehigh Valley.Before the Bethlehem Steel was allowed to organize in 1941, the answer to workers who sought a fair wage was a state trooper on horseback. During a 1910 strike, one of them got carried away and shot a Hungarian immigrant who was getting some wine for his ailing wife. No matter. Charles Schwab could never let a trivial thing like murder interfere with his plans to sell H-beams to the Imperial Japanese Navy and Czarist Russia. These two great nations would ultimately embark on military campaigns in which far greater numbers would die.
Slightly north of Bethlehem, along 309 North, is the site of the 1897 Lattimer Massacre. That's where 19 striking miners were shot and killed by a sheriff's posse. Evidence showed that most of those killed had been shot in the back. But the Sheriff and his posse were acquitted.
Before unions, there were the Molly Maguires, based upon an agrarian group in Ireland. Some say there really was a Molly Maguire. According to the story, she was a widow who refused to leave her cottage when authorities came to remove her as part of an attempt by England to populate Ireland with Scots.
A more likely explanation is that the leader would be a man dressed in disguise as "Molly." He would visit shopkeepers as a poor mother to demand fair prices for her children. If refused, "Molly" would instruct her followers to enter the store and help themselves. The merchant would be warned of dire consequences if they were reported.
In America, the Mollies were an active and violent labor force confronted by child labor, company towns, unsafe working conditions and lousy pay. In addition, they existed at a time when anti-Irish and anti-Catholic discrimination was rampant. As the Chicago Post then wrote, "The Irish fill our prisons, our poor houses. . . . Scratch a convict or a pauper, and the chances are that you tickle the skin of an Irish Catholic. Putting them on a boat and sending them home would end crime in this country."
Sound familiar?
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| Bethlehem Daily Times, 6/20/1877 |
The Mollies were blamed and charged.
Based on the use of informants, 20 Mollies saw their lives end as they dangled from the gallows in Pottsville and Jim Thorpe. They went through a trial in which no Irish Catholics were permitted to serve as jurors. The prosecuting attorneys worked for the railroads and mines.
As the hangman tightened the noose, the Coal and Iron Police were at the jail in force.
These Mollies died, but 13 years later, the United Mine Workers was born.
This was too late for my grandfather on my mother's side. As a little boy, he lost a thumb and a finger working in the mines. Deprived of an education, he never learned how to read. But he was very proud of his signature, and often practiced writing his name.
He would die of emphysema. The mines eventually killed him.
I have many more relatives who died in mine collapses.
To those who say unions have outgrown their usefulness, I am sure the mine owners are smiling from hell.
Good story. My cousin was in the film back in the 60's or 70's ?, as an extra.
ReplyDeleteMy uncle got drunk with Richard Harris and Susan Sarandon
ReplyDeleteRomanticize all you want. Unions destroyed the American economy with greed. We are finally coming back under the Presidents experienced leadership. Stay out of the way and let someone who knows what they are doing fix things. Unions got fat and happy. They no longer represent the working man. Why fight the right to work? Stop peddling fake news.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has a tough life. Killing and drinking is not something to idolize.
Unions didn't destroy the American economy. Unions are the reason we have a minimum wage, reasonably healthy working conditions, and the 40 week. They are the reason we have almost all of the protections we do to keep us from being exploited on the job. Before unions many workers in small Appalachian towns were effectively serfs, unable to either make a living wage or raise the money to pick up and move somewhere they could.
ReplyDeleteLegislators who failed to invest in infrastructure, education, and the social safety net while pumping money into the military despite the absence of any plausible national security threats, and the dupes who kept voting for them, killed the American economy.
True that!
DeleteYou can join the mine owners.
ReplyDelete*40 hr week
ReplyDeleteThe union destroyed Bethlehem steel.
ReplyDeleteEqual blame on both management and the union there...management was shortsighted and didn't keep up with technology. They were looking down the short road. Union became inflexible about work practices and protected weak workers too much.
DeleteI think most people see the importance of unions. My dad was a union guy before getting his degree and becoming a white collar guy. He never permitted a bad word about unions in our household. He told us if we wanted no unions we should go live in China. He also warned that they'd become big business and that public service unions were very bad for democracy. He thought politicians were abandoning privacy sector unions to build up public sector, because private sectors had gone off the reservation by supporting Reagan in some cases, The ATC firings were a perfect opportunity to launch that campaign with federal workers, whose votes are more reliable and more easily and directly purchased. All unions are not equal.
ReplyDeleteWhat were the agendas of a union before compared to now? Whose getting served?
ReplyDeleteUnions were important in the mining and manufacturing industry mostly with safety issues. Unions also had limitations in that if their demands were excessive their companies just disappeared. In the public sector there are no limitations, just raise the taxes or incur more debt, most all the public sector pension systems are a disgrace to the tax papers, an example of the worst sort of greed and corruption.They are far out of control, far more generous than the private sector and most are in a financial pit that they will never recover from. They will expect the private sector workers to bail out the corrupt extortion that they have engaged in.
ReplyDeletePrivate sector unions labor and the trades are hurting. The corporate class has been decimating their ranks since the late 70's. The republicans have done a good job of branding themselves the party of the worker. Problem is they are not and never were. Regan to Trump they are presiding over the death of unions by attacking living wages and decent benefits. Pension plans have been destroyed.
ReplyDeleteThe big money interests that run the party are thrilled. It is sad that they have succeeded in dividing up workers against teach other. Like most of their policies the republicans labor polices are a scam designed to benefit chamber of commerce members.
ONE day labor will wise up and realize the fake testimonials form "union households" are just that, the old republican smoke and mirror game. They have never been a worker friendly group.
Yes the democrats all garner the black vote and look how well those groups have done belonging to that party....
ReplyDeleteThe union did good for the work nine month get paid for 12 school teachers and administration. Without a union the wages should be cut the 25% they do not work like the rest of us who work a FULL year for a living. They then get a 12 month pay and take another job 3 months of the year...
ReplyDeleteReagan's reign was a devastating blow to the unions which they have never come near to recovering. He convinced the average person that the unions were the reason for their financial woes, but lo and behold, the average person's wages have been sinking ever since.
ReplyDeleteWhat many people did not realize was that those same unions were setting the line for wages across the board, union or not. If you were a non-union work place you knew you had to match those union wages or you would not find workers. This was the real "all boats rising with the tide", not just the yachts.
Today we have anti-union Billionaires heading Walmart and Amazon with their full time workers on low enough wages to collect food stamps. Indirectly we are subsidizing Billionaires,..nice.
And have you noticed the weaker the unions get the less the government seems to care about the quality of your water, your air, your environment?
Are unions perfect? Perhaps not. But given the choice of the stated mission statement of a union, to secure a reasonable wage and safe working environment for it's members or serfdom (as stated in someone's previous post) the choice for the support of unions is good for the American Worker and good for America.
1:34, if you actually knew any teachers, you'd know that they do at least 12 months worth of work in that 9 months (which is really more like ten months). The average teacher works an 8ish-hour school day, and many stay at school an extra hour or two for prepping classes, coaching sports, or running other after or before school activities. Then they have to grade the assignments of every student in their classes and prepare lesson plans when they get home. They also have to show up for a bunch of inservice days and meetings or training sessions when students are on vacation.
ReplyDeleteThen they do a bunch of stuff for students that nobody really asked them to do just because they are good people. I know one teacher who has a lot of students in her class who can't afford books from the scholastic book sale, so she is organizing for people she knows to sponsor her students so that they can buy new books. I know another teacher who works at a school with several homeless students. Because nobody else is doing it, the teachers have taken it upon themselves to feed and house these students so that they can focus on learning when they are at school, not on whether they will have someplace to sleep at night.
On top of all that, teachers have to buy a lot of classroom supplies out of their own pockets, and you get childcare for your kids 5/7 days of the week. If anybody needs a strong union, it's teachers.
"Yes the democrats all garner the black vote and look how well those groups have done belonging to that party...."
ReplyDeleteHow unfair after all so many Republicans attended their rallies and marches in support. One can't count the number of times Republicans held town halls in black neighborhoods listening to their concerns. Then there's the registration drives Republicans constantly run trying to encourage the black vote. Hell Trump even had about five or six of them on his three groups of White House interns over the last year and a half. Hey they don't call it Trump's WHITE HOUSE for nothing.
"Ahhh. The days when immigrants came here legally, worked hard, and didn’t live on the Dole"
Yeah not a damn one of them want to do that now. We're too good to deserve the likes of them. Who cares if some are college educated. They'd only come here stealing our jobs anyway. Keep them out so we Americans can work in the meat factories, pick fruit & vegetables, do hotels jobs cleaning toilets and work other shit jobs for ourselves. This is how we're gonna make MAGA
^^ This was meant as satire^^
I wouldn't want some with low IQ's to be confused.
AS FOR MY LABOR DAY THOUGHTS...
The United States never was much of a welcoming country amongst those already here. Even those who were immigrants themselves. Most every generation felt threatened by new arrivals. However-- with each new wave we became a greater nation due to the talents and labor of each. Although many arrived hoping the streets would be paved with gold they soon learned in order to survive and be accepted they had to become part of their neighborhoods. These days are not so different from then. Legal or illegal each and everyone eventually becomes part of the fabric that makes up this country. Those who seek to take advantage of their neighbor will find themselves unwelcome just as they were then. BUT those willing to emulate those around them by working hard and contributing to each others well being will eventually be accepted.
People have always supported one another whom they felt were part of themselves in common cause. That which enriched their lives both financially as well as each and others well being breaching beyond whatever rules government enacts from time to time. This labor day let each and everyone appreciate each and others' commonality which makes this country what it is, Where someone was born should not be a reason to rebuke others because of happenstance of where they were born.
Do the molly maquires ressemble the authoritarian movement now running the nation?
ReplyDeleteHardly
ReplyDeleteI really wish the uninformed would stop spouting the BS about teachers getting paid 12 months when only working 9 months, as if they are getting paid some kind of "extra" time. It's omitting all the facts.
ReplyDeleteTeachers who get paid 12 months opt into that opportunity by having their 9 months of pay divided for a 52 week year. They are getting paid less than they would if they took full pay for 9 months, but it allows for the same smaller paycheck to continue during the summer months.
Workers of the World..Unite!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bernie, for writing this article to remind people of the necessary role unions played in worker safety, fair wages, health insurance and the eight-hour workday - not to mention weekends, AND the end of child labor.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone thinks unions haven't played a pivotal role in the prosperity of the middle class in the mid-20th century, they can take a look at what unscrupulous employers try to get away with now.
And, as others have pointed out here, we ALL pay to fund the social programs workers at places like WalMart and Amazon need to survive. These companies are owned by literally the most affluent people in our country, but they can't see their way clear to giving their employees a living wage and decent working conditions.
The strongest unions today, belong to those who did the beatings and killings of workers on behalf of bosses, back then.
ReplyDeleteSerious protestors today, like the World Trade Organization protests, will get union pepper spray to the face.
If the poor were given access to the wealth, their needs would ravage the planet.
ReplyDelete