As we celebrate the remaining rights U.S. working people have in this country, we should be reminded of what things were like in the past. Here’s a photo from 1909 of children shelling peas in factory in Baltimore, Maryland:
Abuse like this didn’t end because some owner of a factory decided it was time to do the right thing, it changed because people demanded they change, these people were progressive.
Working class folks who dismiss the value of unions are fools. Before unions there was no American middle class and life was very hard for the Average Joe. Then, as now, the greedy elite could give two craps about them or their families.
Unfortunately, many of us never learned about those times and choose to ignore or forget the history, which gave rise to kind of anti-union action we saw during corporate hostile takeover with Reagan administration and continues right up until today with Scott Walker in Wisconsin. We need to remind and re-educate ourselves about what things were like and what they are well on their way to being again, if we don’t wake up.