Labor Day: How are unions faring post-pandemic?
Aug. 26—In a working world dramatically reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic hardships imposed on many people, it would seem conditions are ripe for employee unions to make a resurgence.
Labor Day, observed this year on Monday, Sept. 5, honors the American labor movement that began in the late 19th century in the struggle to improve working conditions for laborers.
Locally, the movement received a lot attention because of Lawrence's "Bread and Roses" textile strike in 1912, which took place about 30 years after the idea of Labor Day was first proposed in the early 1880s.
Through the 20th century, unions were often credited for societal changes that served and protected everyone, workers and employers alike. Forty-hour work weeks, child labor laws, worker's safety and rights are just a few of them.
"I think of the people who didn't have a fire exit 100 years ago and died in the Shirtwaist Fire," said Beth Kontos, vice president of the North Shore Labor Council, referencing the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 garment workers in Manhattan when locked doors prevented their escape. "Having a union meant having a fire escape, having a not-locked door for egress."
When COVID-19 hit and closed businesses and schools, unions stepped up to help laid-off workers. When schools, companies and manufacturers decided to reopen, unions made sure workers could return safely.
Teacher unions, as one example, made sure "when our teachers and students were back in the classroom in person, that ventilation and mold was taken care of," Kontos said. "This was all of our bargaining to get back into school safely. Safety is big."
Others in the organized labor world see unions for their role as an equalizer.
"Labor Day celebrates unions, and it celebrates the fact that not just the CEOs get a contract," said Terri Tauro, president of Marblehead's Municipal Employees Union. "Everybody deserves to have a contract, deserves to know what's expected of them, how far they have to go, how much work they have to do."
What that means has changed, however, as the working world has changed. The economic downturn took many workers with it.
But it isn't the first time this has happened. Tauro offered the Great Depression, where the middle class was effectively plunged into poverty, as one example.
"When we talk about going back to the '30s, that's pretty much when the unions started gaining power," Tauro said. "The middle class was losing. There was the very rich, and the very un-rich, if you want to say. The unions not only gave people a better income and better chance at things; it brought them up. It brought up their dignity."
It has continued to do so ever since. Ben Shallop, a Salem resident with ties to organized labor, said he has seen unions elevate entire classes of people throughout the country.
"I became involved in organized labor while working in Florida Public Schools many, many years ago at a non-union school, where I had an ungodly class size," Shallop said. "I was working as a para, getting screwed over, making about $7.15 an hour."
By 2004, however, Shallop had become part of efforts to reduce class sizes and increase minimum wage in Florida — two ballot measures that won in an election season dominated by the presidential contest between George W. Bush and John Kerry.
"It was my first real exposure to grassroots organizing — through that campaign," Shallop said. "I was young, 20-something. I was like, 'This is how we're going to change the world.'"
Today, Shallop is a labor representative in the Massachusetts entertainment industry and serves as a labor-focused member of the Salem Housing Authority Board.
"Labor Day is very special to me. It's where I recognize that people died for all sorts of things that people take for granted today," he said. "Particularly with Labor Day, on a national level, we're honoring the execution of labor activists in New York who fought for the eight-hour work day.
"As long as people are screwing over workers, workers are going to organize," he said. "Labor isn't going anywhere, no matter how they like it."
Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.
Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.
