Honoring Skilled Labor for Labor Day
At a time when our state is in great need of skilled trades workers, we have put our current and future tradesmen and women — and Michigan as a whole — at a disadvantage. As we saw in June with the repeal of our state’s prevailing wage laws, leadership in our state has unfortunately decided to turn a blind eye toward our state’s rich history of supporting workers, and in doing so, threatens the financial freedom of working families that the labor movement drove to solidify.
As home to the Big Three in the auto industry, Michigan has a long, proud history of supporting workers in our state. But by 1932, more than 40 percent of Michigan workers lost their jobs following the 1929 stock market crash and as a result, nearly 30 percent of our state’s population was forced to find work elsewhere.
Our workers fought back. In 1936, Flint General Motors workers joined together and staged a sit-in at the factory to call attention to their poor working conditions. The famous Flint Sit-Down Strike lasted months, until GM finally recognized the United Auto Workers union in 1937 and the workers came together to negotiate for the equal respect and treatment they deserved.
Fast forward more than 80 years after those auto workers paved the way for us today: have we so quickly forgotten the struggles they endured for us all? Despite an outcry from Michiganders all across the state, the majority in Lansing rushed through a proposal to repeal our prevailing wage laws, which ensured workers on state projects were paid a decent wage. For more than 50 years, prevailing wage has provided working families with the freedom to build a better, more secure life for themselves. It has helped them put food on the table, gas in their car and save for their retirement. Yet in an instant, that freedom was snatched from them as Republicans in Lansing catered to the whims of wealthy contractors.
Our state and the city of Flint have been an integral part of the labor movement, and ultimately, the freedoms working families now enjoy — including things like the 40-hour work week and retirement benefits — are a result of our predecessors’ work. Our history is written by men and women who had the freedom to join together to take action, who sacrificed so future generations could work without fear and who fought for the fair wages and benefits that workers today still enjoy. That is why I am introducing a bill to require Michigan public schools to include instruction on the labor movement and strikes in high school curricula.
As the Legislature slashes paychecks for skilled labor, it is more important than ever to be teaching our young people the importance of the labor movement in Michigan, and all that it has accomplished. Workers having the freedom to join together has brought us safer workplaces and pioneered anti-discrimination policies on the job. The weekends we enjoy, the holiday pay, the raises, the sick leave — where these things still exist, and that they came about at all — is thanks to the men and women who negotiated together. Today, the labor community helps educate our young people about opportunities in the skilled trades and trains our workers on how to do difficult jobs safely, on time, on budget and at high quality.
Repealing our prevailing wage is an insult to the men and women who fought for fair working conditions for us all those years ago. The 79 Republican legislators who voted in favor of that repeal sent a cruel message to today’s construction and skilled trades workers that they aren’t worth a fair pay for a hard day’s work. And that is downright wrong.
It has become increasingly critical we support educating the next generation about how important preserving the freedom to negotiate is, so that we can avoid repeating these damaging and ignorant mistakes. My bill will ensure we do that.
