Kris LaGrange: Will election end attack on organized labor?

Labor Day 2020, like no other in our nation’s history, is absent of parades and large gatherings. Canceled due to covid-19, celebrations are replaced with Zoom meetings that commemorate the American worker as we all hope better days are ahead.

Traditionally on Labor Day union leaders boast of accomplishments of the unions of the past. Black and white imagery of the 40-hour workweek and child labor laws are cognizant of rights taken for granted in a boring historical documentary. Although today’s union movement is far from boring. With our divided nation at a standstill, the importance of America’s workforce has developed a new narrative and found fresh energy, evolving loudly since 2016.

Before this very-preventable pandemic broke, Washington unleashed its fury against organized labor. President Trump has succeeded in crippling workforce rights by rescinding the Obama overtime rule and defunding Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Department of Labor. Trump has revoked union contracts at the Environmental Protection Agency, Veterans Affairs and the Education Department, to name a few, and banned union stickers on the job. He removed union officers from federal buildings and tried to ban the use of the inflatable rat, a tool used by union tradesmen to protest non-union construction sites.

Trump turned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over to Peter Robb. Robb fired thousands of striking air traffic controllers under President Reagan in 1981. Trump’s NLRB bans unions from bargaining on covid-19 safety and withdrew Obama-era procedures that speed up union organizing elections. However instead of running and hiding, labor stepped up their organizing game.

In Pittsburgh, 700 nurses unionized at West Penn Hospital; on Long Island, 1,200 Winthrop Hospital health care professionals did the same. Over 400 magazine writers organized in New York City, and thousands of utility workers unionized in Atlanta.

The era of Trump witnessed over 100,000 teachers in seven states go on strike over collective bargaining rights. The massive protests over police brutality have unionists picking a side as police unions’ rights are upheld, but atrocious acts are quickly criticized by labor’s top brass. Even professional athletes went out on strike in protest.

During all this, national union membership has risen and stayed consistent since 2016, holding at 14.5 million members.

March of this year gave birth to the health care hero. Society praised grocers and delivery drivers. The building trades quickly built makeshift morgues and testing centers; cops and firefighters got sick while mass transit workers in New York City experienced 127 deaths. Tens of thousands of workers died, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the nation weathered the pandemic, these union workforces kept on working against all odds.

That is why America’s unions are dedicating their energies in Washington to pass the Heroes Act, which would provide extended unemployment benefits, hazard pay and an emergency infectious disease standard. With the second covid-19 wave predicted to come, America’s unions are preparing without the help of our inept federal government.

Risking their health, the newest essential workers have stepped forward — the educators. When (not if), students and teachers get sick, schools may close again. The teachers’ unions will once again respond and clean up the mess.

The past four years backed labor into a corner, forcing them to fight back. With the upcoming election, will organized labor once again lead by example and usher in an era of change, like essential workers did and continue to do every day? Or will the union ranks sit idle and watch as covid-19 deaths rise while more workplace rights are taken away?

Kris LaGrange is the head of the UCOMM Media Group, a labor-focused communications firm.