Brannan’s Bay Ridge: Look for the union label
They say a society grows great when people see the importance of planting trees whose shade they know they’ll never enjoy. To most, Labor Day marks the unofficial end of another great summer. But it’s also the one day we set aside each year officially to honor and celebrate the hardworking women and men who stood up for so many of the things we take for granted today.
Indeed, hardworking American values, civil rights, the eight-hour workday, the 40-hour workweek, weekends, minimum wage, overtime pay, safe workplace laws, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans… absolutely none of it would have been possible without the support, sacrifice and leadership of the American labor movement, because, as pedestrian as all of these things may sound today, women and men fought – and fought hard – for every single one of them, every step of the way.
My grandpa Matteo was a garment presser and served as a shop steward for the ILGWU. He was born in East Harlem and grew up in the Bronx to immigrant parents. (Definitely old school – I always loved the way he pronounced boil “burl.”) He could remember a day when the factory owner carried a gun to intimidate union activists seeking to organize.