Labor in the Schools - UAW High School Labor Presentation

Handouts

Child labor photographs
Fast food exercise
Sample employment application

Note to the Instructor

A student's level of understanding of work and union issues will vary widely from school to school, grade to grade and even class to class. Do not assume that the students have much knowledge of unions and the world of work. If you do, you will lose your audience quickly. If you use terms like political action, union organizing, union contract, grievance procedure, arbitration or even legislation, they need to be defined in a way that students can relate to. For example, legislation is simply law, grievances are problems, and arbitration is like a trial before a neutral judge (the arbitrator). When labor terms come up in the presentation, a technique you can use is to stop and ask the students if anyone can define the term. This will involve the students in the presentation, get concepts defined in their words, and give you a better sense of the level of students' understanding. Be conscious of your audience at all times. Encourage questions and input by the students. Finally, be careful not to use union lingo- terms like local and check-off will be alien to almost everyone in the audience.

Introductions

• Briefly introduce yourself.

• Give your union background.

• Stress similarities between your background and theirs.

Work in the Past

• Pass out and/or display on an overhead projector sample photos of children working:

Note: See the Slide Show for an online display, or go to the Tools section to download the PowerPoint Presentation.

• Ask if any of the students have seen these images or pictures like them in their classes.

• Explain that Lewis Hine took these pictures from about 1908 to 1912 in fields, mines, mills, canneries and factories in the United States. The children working in these pictures are as young as seven years old.

• Ask: Why would employers hire children to do these jobs?

Answers should include:

Pay children less.

Children less likely to disobey the boss than adults.

Children more nimble, able to get into small spaces, etc.

All these things allow the boss to make more money by spending less on the workforce.

• Follow up question: What is the goal of the boss in these pictures? Is it to mine coal? Make clothes? Grow crops?

Answer: NO! The boss is in business to make money! That's the bottom line.

• Notice the working conditions in these pictures. Has the boss spent a lot of money on a clean, healthy and safe environment for the workers? No, it is clear that the goal is to spend as little as possible on the workers and the workplace.

• Now ask the students: The most important question is why aren't these pictures of YOU? Why are you in school rather than working 10 to 12 hours a day like these kids?

• Students will probably answer that there are laws prohibiting child labor and requiring children to go to school.

• Ask the students if they know how these laws came about.

• Discussion:

Some students will probably know that state governments passed laws against child labor culminating in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 that prohibited child labor and created overtime after 40 hours work per week (see reference material, below). The important point is that this law came about as a result of widespread pressure on lawmakers by unions and other organizations. Lewis Hine's photographs were used by a group called the National Child Labor Committee to organize letter writing campaigns and demonstrations demanding lawmakers take action in the early 1900s. The Fair Labor Standards Act was finally passed in the wake of hundreds of thousands of workers joining unions and working to elect supportive candidates during the 1930s.

Our union, the UAW, was born during this period (1935), and the victory in winning recognition from General Motors in 1937, the largest corporation in the world, propelled the modern union movement forward so that one in three workers were represented by unions by the 1950s. During these years, union involvement in politics helped to pass laws that continue to benefit all workers to this day — not only the Fair Labor Standards Act, but Social Security, workers compensation and the National Labor Relations Act, which gave workers the legal right to organize. The basic message is that laws don't just happen and bosses didn't just end child labor voluntarily. (Remember their goal is to make as much money as possible.) Workers had to come together, forming unions and voting for candidates who would make change!

Workers' Rights Today

• Ask the students: This was the case 75 years ago (ancient history to them) but what about today? How many of you have a job? How many work at a fast food restaurant?

• Tell the students that in a minute, we are going to do an exercise where we are all workers in a fast food restaurant. First, we have to do a quick review of something that you have probably learned in your Government or U.S. History classes.

• Have the students call out: What are the basic rights guaranteed to Americans under the U.S. Constitution Bill of Rights?

• Answers should include:

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Assembly

Freedom of Religion

Freedom of the Press

Innocent until proven guilty

Protection against search and seizure

Right to due process

Protection against cruel and unusual punishment

Protection against self incrimination

• Tell the students to keep these rights in mind. Now we are all employees of a fast food restaurant. (This exercise can be done as a class or preferably students can work in small groups.)

• The franchise owner, who is convinced that some of the workers are stealing inventory from her food lockers, arrives one day at work in a really bad mood.

• Distribute and read Fast Food Exercise handout.

• The Franchise owner:

Orders one worker to get a haircut before returning to work;
Orders another worker to remove her "Save-the-Whales" button;
Orders a third who is wearing a necklace cross to remove it;
Orders one worker to stop bringing magazines with him to work;
Searches lockers for stolen articles while employees are working;
Overhears workers in the break room talking about her actions, and orders them to "stop bellyaching," and adds that anyone who disagrees with her policies must be guilty of the thievery she has detected;
Punishes the one she suspects is guilty by ordering him to clean the fryer, though it is not his turn;
When the accused says he's innocent and has the right to prove it, the boss says the only Constitutional right he has is to look for work elsewhere.
She says those who disobey her orders will be fired.

• Ask the class as a whole or in small groups to consider: Has the owner violated the workers' Constitutional rights?

• Allow students time to discuss and list the rights violated.

• After five minutes, write the class responses on the black board or flip chart. Some responses might be:

Freedom of speech, religion, assembly, press; freedom from arbitrary search and seizure; innocent until proven guilty, etc.

• After the class is done listing their responses, tell the class that the franchise owner has not violated the workers' Constitutional rights. Workers don't have any of these rights once they walk through a workplace door.

• When it was drafted two centuries ago, the Constitution only protected the rights of citizens from encroachment by the government.

• There were no fast food chains, large private employers or corporations of any kind in 1790, and therefore no perceived dangers from that quarter.

• In fact, most people weren't wage earners — they were farmers, self-employed or slaves — and the Constitution allowed slavery.

Note to the instructor: In some cases, state constitutions extend some rights into the workplace and public employees may also enjoy some additional legal rights on the job, however the point of this exercise is still the same.

• Ask the class: So if the Constitution doesn't protect you from these abuses, what can you do?

Some students might suggest that you can quit and get a job somewhere else. But this doesn't really offer any protection. You could have the same problem on your next job, when and if you get one.

• If no one comes up with "form a union" as an answer, ask: What if you got together with your fellow workers and demanded better treatment? Could the boss fire all of you? Isn't there strength in numbers? What if you and your coworkers all threatened not to work until the boss agreed to put your rights, along with your pay and benefits, in writing?

• That's what a union contract and forming a union is all about.

• Pass out the Employment Application. Have one of the participants read out loud the last paragraph on the back. Point out that when people work non-union they not only lose their constitutional rights but also can be fired "at any time, for any reason, or for no reason."

• Contrast this with the protections of a union contract. Hold up a union contract and read the provision (usually in the management rights section) that says that workers can only be disciplined or terminated for "just cause." Explain this and how the grievance procedure and arbitration give every union member due process and their "day in court."

• Briefly read off the titles of other articles and highlight areas of the contract that you think will be of interest to the students.

• Ask: Do you know how a union contract is negotiated?

Briefly explain how the contract was negotiated and that it had to be voted on by the members. In addition, the negotiators are elected by the membership.

• Follow up question: Is there any democracy in the workplace without a union?

In short, a union contract brings rights and democracy to the workers.

• Remember as you explain these things to encourage students to ask questions. Respond to questions using terms and experiences they can relate to.

Conclusion

• Sum up by offering the students the following advice as they go out into society:

Be educated.
Be active in politics. At least register and vote.
Stand up for your rights and the rights of others in the workplace.

• Why is this still necessary? Let's take a look at one more picture:

• Anyone have a guess as to where, when and what this is a photo of?

• Take a couple of responses.

• This is a recent picture of a six-year-old girl harvesting spinach in Texas.

• Ask: Have bosses' motives changed?

No, they're still in it to make money. Laws are only as good as their enforcement. Our rights are only as good as our power to enforce them. Only by working together, with strength in numbers, can we protect our rights in the face of bosses' greed. Together we can use the ballot box and the negotiating table to make our lives better.

• Thank the students for their time and be sure to thank the teachers and administration for inviting you.

Reference Material

About Lewis Hine

Photographer Lewis W. Hine (1874-1940) was born in Oshkosh, Wis. He studied sociology at Chicago and New York universities, becoming a teacher, then took up photography as a means of expressing his social concerns.

His first photo essay featured Ellis Island immigrants. In 1908, Hine left his teaching position for a full-time job as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, which was then conducting a major campaign against the exploitation of American children.

From 1908 to 1912, Hine took his camera across America to photograph children as young as three years old working long hours, often under dangerous conditions, in factories, mines and fields. Hine was an immensely talented photographer who viewed his young subjects with the eye of a humanitarian.

In 1909, he published the first of many photo essays depicting working children at risk. In these photographs, the essence of wasted youth is apparent in the sorrowful and even angry faces of his subjects. Some of his images, such as the young girl in the mill glimpsing out the window, are among the most famous photographs ever taken.

During World War I, Hine documented the plight of refugees for the American Red Cross. He later documented the construction of the Empire State building in 1930-1931 and even hung upside down from a crane to photograph workmen.

Child Labor in America

As early as the 1830s, many U.S. states had enacted laws restricting or prohibiting the employment of young children in industrial settings. However, in rural communities where child labor on the farm was common, employment of children in mills and factories did not arouse much concern. Another problem for children was the popular opinion that gainful employment of children of the "lower orders" actually benefited poor families and the community at large.

Entire families were hired, the men for heavy labor and the women and children for lighter work. Workdays typically ran from dawn to sunset, with longer hours in winter, resulting in a 68-72 hour workweek. Many families also lived in company owned houses in company owned villages and were often paid with overpriced goods from the company store. Thus they lived a life entirely dominated by their employers.

By the late 1800s, states and territories had passed over 1,600 laws regulating work conditions and limiting or forbidding child labor. In many cases the laws did not apply to immigrants. Thus they were often exploited and wound up living in slums working long hours for little pay.

Throughout America, local child labor laws were often ignored. On a national level, progress to protect children stalled as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled several times that child labor laws under question were unconstitutional. A subsequent attempt to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution failed.

In 1904, the National Child Labor Committee was organized by socially concerned citizens and politicians, and was chartered by Congress in 1907. From 1908 to 1912, photographer Hine documented numerous gross violations of laws protecting young children. At many of the locations he visited, youngsters were quickly rushed out of his sight. He was also told youngsters in the mill or factory had just stopped by for a visit or were helping their mothers.

Attempts at child labor reform continued, aided by the widespread publicity from Hine's photographs. As a result, many states passed stricter laws banning the employment of underage children. In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, better known as the Federal Wage and Hour Law. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the Act constitutional in 1941.

The Act set a workweek of 40 hours, with a minimum wage of 40 cents per hour. It prohibited child labor under age 16 while allowing minors 16 and over to work in non-hazardous occupations. The Act set 18 as the minimum age for work in industries classified as hazardous. No minimum age was set for non-hazardous agricultural employment after school hours and during vacations. Children aged 14 and 15 could be employed in non-manufacturing, non-mining and non-hazardous occupations outside of school hours and during vacations for limited hours.

Child Labor Today

According to recent global estimates by the International Labor Organization, the number of working children aged 5 to 14 in developing countries is on the order of 250 million, 120 million of whom work full time in various jobs often under hazardous conditions and amid crude living conditions. A surplus of unskilled workers and low wages have combined to create conditions for children similar to the worst features of factories, mines and mills from the 1800s with minimal chances for education and future happiness.

The International Initiative to End Child Labor (IIECL) is the first United States based organization whose sole mission is to eliminate the worst forms of exploitative child labor in the United States and throughout the world.

Worst forms of exploitative child labor are defined as child slavery (including forced labor, debt bondage and servitude); child soldiering; child trafficking; child prostitution; involving children in illegal activities (such as selling drugs); and involving children in hazardous labor. Child laborers are defined as people under the age of 18 who are involved in the worst forms of child labor cited above. IIECL recognizes a difference between child work and child labor, but advocates that education should be the first priority for all children.