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By Troy M. Olson
Labor Day Is Often Seen as the End of the Summer, Beginning of the School Year, but increasingly it crosses all of the key areas that are key to America's civic and national renewal. |
Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 and by that time had been celebrated in the late 19th Century in many states. Its existence came out of the labor movement of trade unionism where it gets its name. In those days, the labor movement existed outside the major two political parties in the United States, would work with both, and even a third that was organizing for major party status at the time--the People's Party (most often referred to as the Populists).
While organized labor has come to be associated with the Democratic Party today, its history and greatest successes came when it was outside of either major party's reach. That success stalled there first at its post-war zenith under the Truman administration, but then begin to lose momentum in earnest starting in the late 1970s deindustrialization and outsourcing which went on almost uninterrupted into the 21st Century. With it were unionization rates, and subsequent union growth came almost exclusively in the public sector, where gains are going to be pit directly against the interest of taxpayers. Rather than government being the arbiter between labor and management, politicians became the spineless promiser between the taxpayer and the public unionized employee. Labor Day may owe its existence to the trade unionization and labor movement but it increasingly must celebrate the dignity of work itself.
One of the labor movement's biggest mistakes was becoming a mere arm of a political party. But in the Trump-era, that is beginning to reverse over the key issues of trade, immigration, and a renewed national industrial policy. This realignment will continue in the years to come and probably top out at a figure where in a decade or so the Republican Party is winning more support, along with endorsements and money from 17 of the top 30 unions in America, mostly in the trades and security areas, whereas Democrats are left with 13 or so, exclusively in the public employee and service sectors.
For many decades now, wages have been stagnant or declined in real terms for the American worker, and the decline of unions is not the only part of that, but political - labor relations in America being what they were certainly prevented considerable recovery. Outsourcing and the forces of globalization, along with mass migration have undercut the American worker and with it put a considerable dent in the American middle class, which brings us to our second area.
The American middle and working classes were and still are the backbone of this country, especially its civic fate. The dependent poor may need the American government a great deal and America's richest may be able to lobby for the most favorable treatment from government, but it is the middle class families who make or break this Constitutional Republic. There was a time in this country where the middle class could raise their families on one income, and those days are long gone for most of it now, and who it is not gone for pays for that lifestyle with credit cards, reverse mortgages and home equity lines, and most certainly - two parent incomes.
The dignity of work, strong and intact families backed by a stable income, and crucially what those factors contribute to our communities and civic vitality is why Labor Day is not just another sales day. If we kick off the summer remembering with those who gave the last fully measure of devotion to this country with Memorial Day it is proper that we end it with Labor Day that sees a renewed commitment to what honest, dignified, and purposeful work with fair and decent compensation does for the soul, how it nourishes and builds the family, and how it contributes to building a country whose most ambitious citizens are reaching higher and higher these days, in hopes of a half-century Golden Age to come.
And for all of those people, of which I am certainly one of them, there will be national and civic renewal without the American worker. In a time where we have emphatically decided to put America and the American people first, let us strive to be a country that recognizes how important respect for the American worker is in reversing so much that has gone wrong the past half-century.
Troy M. Olson is an Army Veteran, lawyer by training, and co-author (with Gavin Wax) of ‘The Emerging Populist Majority’ now available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Target. He is the Sergeant-at-Arms of the New York Young Republican Club and co-founder of the Veterans Caucus. He lives in New York City with his wife and son, and is the 3rd Vice Commander (“Americanism” pillar) of the first new American Legion Post in the city in years, Post 917. You can follow him on X/Twitter and Substack at @TroyMOlson
