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Health & Fitness

The View From Over Here

Saluting Working Men and Women—Cuccinelli Not So Much!

           This week began with Labor Day, a day to stop and salute the working men and women who drive our economy.  These days, they are an unappreciated lot, tending to toil for wages long stagnating so that a very few grow very rich.  

          Labor Day was enshrined as a national holiday during another gilded age, in the late 19th century.  Congress adopted Labor Day out of shame, following the killing of many striking workers by the army, called out by President Cleveland to put down a strike against the powerful Pullman Corporation.  Literally then, as now, powerful corporate interests called the “shots” in Washington.  The nation was shocked by the violence and the deaths of workers standing up for their rights.  Our September Labor Day was created to assuage some of that guilt.

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          Many have forgotten, especially here in Virginia, the role of labor in this country and the role labor organizations, particularly unions, played in fostering the growth of a prosperous middle class.  In recent times, neither unions nor working people have fared well in Virginia or America.  Corporate greed and money have driven legislation curtailing the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively, especially in Virginia, a so-called “right to work” state.

          Listening to the Republican candidate for Governor, Ken Cuccinelli, the other day at a candidates forum at GMU, I was reminded how bad it has gotten.  In wide-ranging attacks on his opponent, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, Cuccinelli at one point slammed McAuliffe, a successful businessman himself, for being anti-business, a man who “will bring unions to Virginia”.  Imagine, workers able to bargain for fair wages and working conditions with their employers!  It would be like an ebola outbreak for Cuccinelli.  He also attacked striking fast food workers seeking a living wage of $15 per hour. “Awfully good for flipping burgers”, he sneered.  We can only hope that Cuccinelli never gets near the Virginia Governor’s mansion.  He should be in business where he can directly deal with upstart workers asking for a living wage in return for their amazing productivity which makes their corporate masters so rich.

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          Next Labor Day, wouldn’t it be nice to contemplate a Virginia with working men and women making decent wages, perhaps with a little help from their own unions.  Even the likes of the rabid Cuccinelli could get some satisfaction out of such progress.  Tax cuts for the wealthy would be more feasible if we reduced public welfare assistance to thousands of working people now living in poverty, if they made a living wage.  In the glow of Labor Day, it’s OK to dream!

            

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