Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
“Workers of the World Unite.” Karl Marx’s advice is now passé. In 19th century Europe the bloated capitalist sector, intent on squishing labor down to subsistence, was the enemy. The miserable conditions did spur labor to unite, battling for higher pay, safer workplaces … “subsistence” at a higher level, enough to quash the fomenting labor revolutions. Management acquiesced, reluctantly, partly because a contented labor force added to the bottom line.
In that long-ago era, much of the public decried the horrific factory workplaces. Reread Upton Sinclair ‘s “The Jungle” (1906) for a muckraking portrait of the meatpacking industry — before libraries ban the book. In the 1890s New York bakers, working 18 hour days in unventilated basements, went on strike. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 roused many citizens to urge government action.
Government responded, often reluctantly. In 1895, New York limited bakers to a maximum of 10 hours a day or 60 hours a week, with sanitation standards. (Sadly, the U.S. Supreme Court in Lochner v. New York [1905] ruled the law unconstitutional: it infringed on the “liberty of contract” under the Fourteenth Amendment.)
Sinclair’s muckraking spurred the federal Pure Food and Drug Act, as well as the Meat Inspection Act. The Triangle Fire spurred the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law (mandating sprinklers), and the Factory Investigating Commission led to restrictions on employing women and children. By 1915, most industrial states had passed some sort of compensation. The Department of Labor was formed in 1913, shortly after the Public Health Service in 1912. OSHA came on board in 1970. We had worker protections, restrictions on child labor, minimum work-weeks. The Progressive era had come full-term.
What a difference an election makes!
In the arcana of the Big Beautiful Bill, watch workers’ protections plummet.
OSHA will persist, but with far fewer workplace inspections, and a 12% reduction in staff. Also, OSHA’s research arm, which looks to improve workplace conditions, has all but disappeared. We are leaving it up to management to enhance productivity without endangering their workers.
Intense heat can be OK. Under President Joe Biden, legislation was on the table to require “heat safety,” protecting workers from laboring in intense heat. Under President Donald Trump, states will have the burden of enforcing any such provision.
Weakened collective bargaining. A few tweaks to the National Labor Relations Act, and presto — a weaker union. Via executive order, this President has ended collective bargaining for a slew of federal employees.
A governmental embrace of sub-minimum wages for service workers. Tax-free tips sound like a worker bonanza, a gift from President Trump. In return, employers can with impunity pay service workers far less than minimum wage. Wait-staff at five-star restaurants earn hefty tips that compensate for low wages; wait-staff at family restaurants do not. For them, lower wages translate to lower take-home pay. States are wrangling with restaurants’ request to pay less.
Even restrictions on child labor are taking a hit. Restaurants and agricultural businesses know that extending the work-hours, and lowering the age, of child-workers is cheaper than paying higher wages to attract adults. The National Restaurant Association and other lobbying groups have looked to states. Arkansas has eliminated the minimum age requirement (previously set at 14). New Hampshire extended hours for children working in restaurants. In Iowa, 14-year-old children can work six-hour days, so long as their parents approve. Solons in Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota have introduced similar bills. The dangers of young, tired, inexperienced workers include burns, finger and thumb cuts, strains, being struck by objects, but advocates stress the morale-building benefits of hard work. If this sounds Dickensian, it is. The Victorians enthusiastic about child labor said that children avoided the sin of idleness, while supplementing their families’ income.
Ironically, government — the avuncular Uncle Sam —that once protected workers’ health has turned against them. Workers now have a new enemy: that once avuncular Uncle Sam.
Joan Retsinas is a sociologist in Providence, R.I., who writes about health care. Email joan.retsinas@gmail.com.
