labor

What Happened to Labor Day?

By Robert Reich
AlterNet.org
September 3, 2007

This post written by Robert Reich, originally appeared on Robert Reich's Blog

A young person asked me not long ago -- only half in jest -- whether Labor Day was named in honor of natural childbirth.

Most young people today have no memory of a time when Walter Reuther of the UAW and John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers were household names, when presidents jawboned labor to prevent agreements from causing wage-priceinflation, when productivity gains pushed wages up, and when more than a third of the American workforce was unionized.