(Ralph Nader)
Legendary consumer activist Ralph Nader believes Labor Day should live up to its name. It should be a day that celebrates working people in the United States and their right to organize and speak in a united voice.
Instead of being a day extolling capitalism with shopping bargains and discount offers, this coming Labor Day on Monday, September 2, could feature a variety of community gatherings, including “assemblies, rallies, voter registration drives, marches, demonstrations and even agenda-driven parades,” Nader said.
“We can have all kinds of events at the local level,” Nader told me in a recent telephone interview. “A compact for American workers.”
The events would help promote important issues such as raising the minimum wage, repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act, greater protections for workers at the workplace, and more security for their pensions, all doubly important given the presidential election in November.
You’d think the AFL-CIO would love the idea. They did. Nader proposed it to AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and other labor leaders and got an enthusiastic response. Several major labor leaders were ready to act as soon as they got the green light from the AFL-CIO. They included Baldemar Velasquez of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Sara Nelson of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, and former Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen.
“We thought, `This is great! We finally woke up that giant on 16th Street (AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C.) from their slumber,” Nader said.
Then the Democratic Party stepped in. “On anything remotely touching on elections, they pass it by the Democratic Party apparatus,” Nader said. “The Democratic Party shut it down. `We won’t be able to control it. Don’t rock the boat.’”
Attempts to contact Shuler national Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison were unsuccessful.
“She doesn’t even call us,” Nader said. “It completely goes dark. They’re so corrupt and so tied to the hip of the Democratic Party they can’t even put the works in on Labor Day.”
As for the Democratic Party, Nader said, “they’re controlled by corporate consultant media groups. They’d rather do puff pieces like what kind of coach was (Democratic vice presidential candidate) Tim Walz.”
Labor Day was even at its founding something of a contentious event. It ought to be on May 1, the day it is celebrated elsewhere in the world. May 1, 1886, was the day of the founding of the “Eight Hour Work Day” in Chicago and what is considered the world’s first May Day parade. However, the subsequent deadly police confrontation and bombing known as the “Haymarket Affair” and continued labor unrest in later years rattled President Grover Cleveland enough in 1894 to proclaim a “Labor Day” holiday but to make it the first Monday in September rather than May 1.
A recent Gallup Poll showed that 70 percent of Americans view labor unions favorably, the second highest level in six decades. A poll in 2022 showed 71 percent viewed unions favorably.
The polls indicate Americans are ready for a more robust Labor Day, one that does more than ask them to reach into their pockets and spend, one that recognizes the contributions of the working class to American society and declares a commitment to make their lives better.
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