Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

I write to make some important Labor Day facts that need to be made, namely the benefits of labor unions.  

Without the bloody battles fought by workers that cost the lives and health of many that fought, we would not have the following: child labor laws, a 40 hour work week, paid holidays, paid vacations, employees health benefits, employee pension plans, safer work environments, bargaining for better wages and benefits, pregnancy leave, overtime pay, worker protection against unfair employers, mandatory coffee breaks, mandatory lunch breaks and possibly others that do not come to mind at this time.  

Over time, labor unions have lost membership to legislation such as “right to work” (for peanuts) laws and other laws that allow non-union members to get the same benefits unions have earned without paying any dues.  Businesses who make pacts so that good employees cannot move to another business such as a fast food restaurant for better wages, etc. As a result, wages have been stagnant for the American worker over the last thirty years while corporations have reaped huge monetary gains.  

Everyone should study the labor movement, and I can think of no better place to start than Howard Zinn’s “A Peoples History of the United States 1492 to the Present.”  Lack of such knowledge is a detriment to worker efforts to gain reasonably favorable working conditions, pay, and benefits.  

Labor Day and labor unions are forever entwined lest we forget the huge sacrifices of those who came before us.

Mike Killingsworth 

Manteca