Labor Day and Faith

Labor Day and Faith
A. Stephen Van Kuiken
Community Congregational U.C.C.
Pullman, WA
September 4, 2022

Ancient Witness: Deuteronomy 24:10-15

This weekend as we celebrate Labor Day, we remember that Labor day is not just a day off. It is a hard-earned holiday. It comes out of the struggles of working people to be treated with respect and dignity. It is also an opportunity for people of faith to recognize and remember God’s commitment to justice and reflect on how we can help workers to be treated with justice and fairness in the workplace.

Most of the Christian denominations through the years, including the United Church of Christ, have articulated a position that supports the rights of workers to choose whether to organize and bargain collectively. I put part of a statement from the General Synod of the U.C.C. in this morning’s bulletin. It says,

The 21^st General Synod reaffirms the heritage of the United Church of Christ as an advocate for democratic, participatory, and inclusive economic policies in both public and private sectors including…the responsibility of workers to organize unions for collective bargaining with employers regarding wages, benefits, and working conditions; and to participate in efforts further to democratize, reform and expand the labor movement domestically and abroad.

But this is not always the case. During the 1920’s, the wealthy accumulated such exorbitant stocks of cash, they couldn’t spend it all. Instead, they played the stock market, fueling a rapid run-up in stock prices. Lower and middle income households, on the other hand, lacked wealth enough to meet their needs and were forced to borrow heavily.

Many historians believe that this combination of growing personal debt and a widening wealth gap destabilized the economy and precipitated the Great Depression. It was in this context that the labor movement gained prominence. From coal miners to auto workers, people joined together in unions to fight for fair compensation and working conditions. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was a recognition of this great movement.

It was largely because of unions and policies instituted by the New Deal that the United States was able to have such a large middle class in the second half of the 20th century. And it was during these struggles that churches started to recognize that God’s commitment to justice can be seen in this movement.

The basic premise is this: Since there is such an unequal relationship of power between owners of companies and the workers, there needs to be rules to help level the playing field. Workers must be allowed to decide democratically, with no pressure from the company, whether they want to come together and bargain as a unit with the owners.

The fair treatment of workers is affirmed throughout the Scriptures. In Deuteronomy (24:15-15) it says,

You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow citizen or a stranger in one of the communities of you land.  You must pay them their wages on the same day, before the sun sets, for they are needy and urgently depend upon it.

And in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, there is the assumption that each person receives fair wages according to the work they do:

The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.  (1 Cor. 3:8)

Upholding the dignity of each person and the dignity of their labor is a basic biblical affirmation.

Labor Day is a time for us in the religious community to celebrate working people and their contributions to our society but also to remember the struggles that workers endured to achieve the many benefits we now enjoy and take for granted: the eight-hour day, the five-day work week, worker’s compensation for injury, overtime pay, pensions, health and safety laws, Social Security, Medicare, vacation days, restriction on child labor, minimum wage and right to organize for collective bargaining. These benefits helped to humanize the workplace and to provide a safety net for millions of people.

The result was not only that workers were treated more fairly and shared in the economy’s gains, but the economy itself became more vibrant. Reich wrote,

The Great Depression and its aftermath demonstrate that there is one way back to full recovery: through more widely shared prosperity.  (“How to End the Great Recession,” The New York Times, September 3, 2010)

As we now find ourselves in a period of extreme economic inequality, like the one that preceded the total collapse in the 30’s, Reich says we need to learn from the past:

Policies that generate more widely shared prosperity lead to stronger and more sustainable economic growth—and that’s good for everyone.  The rich are better off with a smaller percentage of a fast-growing economy than a larger share of an economy that is barely moving.  That’s the Labor Day lesson we learned decades ago…

We find ourselves in a period of growing inequality and deepening economic disparity in America. In 1928 the richest 1% of Americans received almost 24% of the country’s total income—almost a quarter of all the income went to them. After the New Deal reforms, unions, and other programs such as the G.I. Bill, their share went down to about 8-9% in the 70’s. But today, the richest 1% now receive 45%. The numbers are mind-boggling. Since 1978, the average CEO pay increased by almost 1,000%, while average worker’s wages have been stagnant. It has been reported that three men have more wealth than the bottom 50% of the U.S.

The Rand Corporation recently reported that since 1975, there has been a massive redistribution of $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. Billionaires are getting richer and richer while everyone else falls behind. There is more inequality, lower standards of living and decreasing life expectancy. And this burden is falling disproportionately the younger generations.

And so, it is not surprising that these numbers coincide with a decline of unions. (SEE CHART) The percentage of workers who are in a union today is about a third at its height. Only one in 10 workers are unionized. Today in many organizing campaigns, workers are fired illegally, employers receive penalties that are a mere slap on the wrist. Recently, 85 union organizers were fired illegally at Starbucks while their CEO, Howard Schultz, made $1 billion during the pandemic alone. There is massive corporate opposition to unions, as they threaten workers that they’ll go to China. The media, owned by a handful of large corporations, are hostile to unions and don’t talk about class issues. And the so-called “right to work” states prevent workers from making any progress. Just this week, Oxfam released a study showing that the states that respect workers’ rights prosper, while those “right to work” states have lower income, higher poverty rates and lower levels of overall well-being. Our state of Washington is one of the top three states, with higher minimum wage, greater worker protections and the right to organize.

Over 25 years ago, Paul Krugman wrote,

We should not idealize unions.  Occasionally they were corrupt, and sometimes they enforced inefficiency.  But they helped keep us a middle-class society because they provided a counterweight to the power of wealthy individuals and corporations.  The loss of that counterweight is clearly bad for society.

The more power and political influence that corporations and wealthy elites acquire, the more the laws and policies favor them and the wealthier they become.  This leads, in turn to greater power and influence, and we have this downward “spiral of inequality.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at the 1961 AFL-CIO convention, saying,

The labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it.  By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production.  Those who today attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.

But there is something stirring in our land. Labor unions are beginning to realize that unless there are part of a broad and inclusive movement for social justice for all working people, they can no longer survive. They are reaching out to minorities and immigrants, women and the lowest wage workers as never before.

We are seeing a rise in organizing and some incredible victories in places like Amazon, Starbucks and the service industry, overcoming enormous odds and overwhelming political power and wealth. Today, about 70% of Americans approve of unions, which is the highest since 1965.

Finally, I refer to the words of Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave who worked to liberate black people and worked for the poor and workers. He said,

Those who say they love liberty but deprecate agitation are men who want the harvest without plowing.  This may be a moral struggle, or it may be physical, but struggle it must be.  Power concedes nothing without demand.  It never has, and it never will.

What Douglass was saying is that we cannot rest on the successes of the past. We must take each other’s hands and walk together in the houses of worship, in the workplaces and in all of life for the dignity and fair treatment that people want and deserve. It will not be given unless we demand.

In the documents of mine workers’ union of the last century we find these words:

Step by step the longest march can be won.  Many stones can form and arch, singly none.  And by union what we will, can be accomplished still.  Drops of water turn a mill, singly none, singly none.

Friends, may this Labor Day remind us again of the importance of unity, solidarity, equality and justice.