Labor History 101

A union is a group of workers who join together to have a voice on the job. Alone, one worker has little power against a large employer — together, through collective bargaining, they negotiate as equals. The result is a contract covering wages, benefits, safety, and fair treatment. Key idea: solidarity. An injury to one is an injury to all.

In the 1800s, workers — including children — labored 12–16 hours a day in dangerous factories with no weekends, overtime, or safety laws. They organized and fought back. The 1886 movement for the eight-hour day led to the Haymarket affair, remembered worldwide every May Day, and gave rise to the early unions and the American Federation of Labor.

The labor movement built the middle class. The weekend, the eight-hour day, overtime pay — all union wins. The 1935 Wagner Act made it legal to organize and bargain. The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act created the minimum wage, the 40-hour week, and outlawed the worst child labor. Safety laws, health insurance, and pensions came from organized workers demanding them.

Most people picture Dr. King's “I Have a Dream” speech — but Dr. King did not organize the 1963 March on Washington. Its architects were two labor leaders: A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (the first Black union chartered by the American Federation of Labor), and Bayard Rustin. Its full name says it all: the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Jobs came first — the demand was for decent wages, an end to job discrimination, and economic justice for all working people. Organized labor was behind that day. The fight for civil rights and the fight for workers' rights have always marched together.

In 1968, Memphis Black sanitation workers struck after two men were crushed by a faulty truck. Paid poverty wages and denied dignity, they carried signs reading I AM A MAN. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to stand with them — and it was here, supporting a labor struggle, that he gave his final speech. The fight for workers' rights and civil rights have always been one.

A union card is still one of the surest paths to the middle class. Through an apprenticeship you earn while you learn — no mountain of debt — with fair wages, health care, retirement, and a real voice on the job. You also join something bigger: a movement of working people looking out for each other. When we don't grow, we die. The future is the next generation — that's you.