Labor Day: It’s better in a union

Detail of a mural inside the Madison Labor Temple building celebrating unions and worker rights. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

Each year as Wisconsinites move through the age-old cycle in which summer gives way to fall, the transition is marked on the calendar by Labor Day. For many people, it’s a day off for picnics and barbeques, a last chance to enjoy the Midwestern summer before the snow flies. For union members, the day has a deeper meaning. It is a chance to celebrate the many contributions organized labor has made to the lives of Wisconsin workers and to our society as a whole.

Wisconsin’s labor movement has always been at the forefront of the quest for economic justice. Unions pushed for the first laws protecting young workers in 1899, with union advocacy pushing the state legislature to set maximum hours of work for children, prohibiting kids from being exploited in dangerous occupations. This was followed by the nation’s first workers compensation law in 1911 and the first unemployment compensation law in 1932.  

Looking at multiple indicators of economic, personal and democratic well-being, it’s clear that unions not only benefit our members, but have a substantial positive effect on our communities more generally. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once noted, “we can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both”. In this grim dichotomy, unions are among the most effective agents of democracy. In U.S. states with the highest union density, union and non-union workers alike enjoy higher average wages, with lower gender and racial wage gaps. Workers covered by a union contract also use fewer public benefits, and higher union wages mean more tax revenue to fund government services.

The role unions play in creating and maintaining a robust and healthy middle class is clear. For generations of workers, union membership has been the path to achieving the American Dream, the difference between getting by and getting ahead. But as Wisconsinites saw during the tenure of Gov. Scott Walker, the positive impact of unions can be abruptly undermined by politicians intent on stripping workers of basic economic rights in favor of their wealthy friends.

Polls consistently show unions today enjoy levels of popular support not seen in decades. But still the fight for economic justice rages on, with our neighbors and family members in unions on the front lines. 

Project 2025, the now infamous playbook for a second Donald Trump presidency, outlines a series of unprecedented steps to empower corporations at the expense of working Americans. It calls for the banning of all public employee unions, replacing civil servants with political appointees; it would eliminate prevailing wage and project labor agreements and make it easier for employers to get rid of unions in the middle of a contract; it would gut the National Labor Relations Board’s ability to enforce worker protections and allow states to ban labor unions and undermine overtime; it would turn back the clock by eliminating child labor rules that protect children from working in mines, meatpacking plants, and other dangerous workplaces. In short, it would undo a century of hard-won progress toward a more just U.S. economy, tipping the scales in favor of wealthy corporations.   

Fortunately, another benefit unions provide our democracy is increased civic engagement among our members. Where more workers are organized, voter turnout is higher. Greater voter engagement in our democracy should be universally welcomed regardless of which party you support. In these final days before the election, Wisconsin’s union men and women will be doing all we can to elect pro-labor candidates up and down the ballot so that next January’s inauguration ceremonies mark the continuation of an opportunity agenda for America’s workers.    

So this year as you fire up the grill and pop open that first cold one of the Labor Day holiday, remember Justice Brandeis’ stark warning and take a moment to think about the many ways labor unions are making Wisconsin and America a better place for us all.