The CFT and the California Labor Federation were co-sponsors
of the legislation that created Labor History Month in 2012, when
Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 2269 (Swanson, D-Oakland) into
law. The CFT continues to work with friends in the
Legislature and the labor movement to disseminate information and
instructional materials, and carry out the spirit of the law, as
stated below.
Under California Education Code, Section
51009, “the month of May is hereby deemed to be Labor
History Month throughout the public schools, and school districts
are encouraged to commemorate this month with appropriate
educational exercises that make pupils aware of the role the
labor movement has played in shaping California and the United
States.”
Why commemorate Labor History Month?
What role has the labor movement played? Most of the middle class
arrived in that economic neighborhood when working people got
together, formed unions, and wrested a fair share of what they
produced from their employers. In other words, it was by acting
like a working class that most of our families became middle
class during the last century.
One example is the New Deal, created by a president conscious of
the enormous upsurge in unionization and worker activism in the
1930s, consisting of laws such as the National Labor Relations
Act, Social Security Act, Unemployment Insurance Act, and Fair
Labor Standards Act. While most people think of these as
Roosevelt’s legacy, he didn’t do this alone. It took a massive
surge of unionization, with workers engaged in strikes,
demonstrations, factory seizures, and political action, pushing
up from below, before those in power heard their message and
created the New Deal.
So you might think these historic advances receive the attention
they deserve in history books and social studies classes in our
schools. But they don’t. The title of a 2010 study by
scholars working with the Albert Shanker Institute, “American
Labor in U.S. History Textbooks: How Labor’s story is distorted
in high school history textbooks,” describes part of the
problem. The other part is simply exclusion of unions from the
story of American society, in the corporate controlled textbook
publishing industry and mass commercial media alike.
With union density sinking below 7 percent in the private sector,
it shouldn’t be a stretch to see the erosion of actual union
achievements as related to their erasure from the history books
and public conversation. Economic inequality is growing: The
highest share of national income since 1928 — 23 percent —
is in the hands of the richest 1 percent, at the expense of the
rest of us.
The Koch brothers, the Waltons, Eli Broad, and their billionaire
friends buy elections and politicians across the country to
do their bidding. They
also spend big bucks to provide curricula with their libertarian,
anti-union point of view to schools. These politicians are
bent on destroying unions and privatizing every corner of the
public sector.
All the more important to remember and celebrate the historic
victories of the labor movement in whatever ways we can. For a
generation of young workers facing employment in big box stores,
fast food restaurants, and temp agencies, outside the protections
of unions, these lessons are essential if they are to know their
rights and know that it’s possible to defend the historic gains
of working people.
Imagine the difference in outcome of struggles in states like
Wisconsin and Michigan over worker rights if young people had had
a solid education about the importance of unions in school before
growing up and becoming workers and voters.
Labor History Month offers an opportunity to give all students
something precious — knowledge of where their rights came from,
and how to preserve and extend them today.
How to bring lessons of labor history to your
students
There are a number of ways to bring the lessons of labor
history to our students and to celebrate Labor History
Month outside of school too.
