Given the assault on unions and democracy by the super rich and radical right-wing Republicans, we might want to start the discussion of the progress made by labor with a little history of WWII.
Knowing the only force strong enough internally to stop tyranny was organized workers, Hitler outlawed trade unions in Germany in 1933. This is a particularly important fact to remember when we watch the efforts today in America to simultaneously dismantle democracy and destroy unions.
As Hitler destroyed unions in Germany, unions were growing in America. Workers fought for their rights, and the Wagner Act finally passed in 1935. By the time the US entered WWII, much of industrial America was union. That fact created the most productive workforce in the world.
When America threw itself into the war to save democracy and freedom, we had to arm our soldiers and arm the soldiers of the Allies.
So union miners mined the iron ore in the Iron Range of Minnesota. They put it on union Great Lakes freighters to be rolled into steel by the great union steel plants in South Chicago and Gary, then loaded it back on union freighters to be made into armaments in union factories built for domestic use, but converted into weapons manufacturers across Michigan and Ohio.
Then, as American men when to fight the war, union women stepped up to the punch presses and lathes and assembly to continue arming the free world.
Those union women collectively called themselves Rosie the Riveter.
It was working America that won WWII.
My friends at the West Virginia Eastern Panhandle Federation of Unions celebrate this history with an event on Sept 8th to honor veterans and Rosie the Riveter.
Freedom ain’t free. Freedom and Democracy, the legacies of worker struggle.