The dignity of labor

In 1970, Walter Reuther, the legendary president of the United Automobile Workers, said, “There is no power in the world that can stop the forward march of free men and women when they are joined in the solidarity of human brotherhood.”

Despite declining political influence and self- inflicted wounds ( most recently and glaringly in the UAW), labor unions still include more than 14.6 million workers, which is more than 10% of the U. S. workforce.

Arising in the post- Civil War era in response to the Industrial Revolution, unions sought the same goals then as they do now: safe working conditions, better pay and reasonable hours — and the recognition of the dignity of work and of the human person.

In 1893, Samuel Gompers answered the question “What does labor want?” this way: “We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.”

Knowledge and learning, justice, nobility and beauty — this is a platform, not only for organizational labor’s future, but the nation’s.

The original idea of Labor Day still resonates in 2020 — a day to celebrate the accomplishments of the American worker. Laboring men and women built this nation and have sustained it.

“Laborare est Orare” — to work is to pray — is the rule of St. Benedict. Labor, done with dedication, skill and a happy heart, a kind of prayer, not only in the lives of Benedictine monks but also in the lives of many forgotten Americans in the American heartland.

Labor is honorable, and so are the laborers.