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In reception to one of the nation ’s dark labor - history chapter , Congresspassed a lawin 1894 do the first Monday of every September “ Labor Day , ” to yield tribute and abide by the achievements and contributions of American workers .
While the passing of the law helped to improve conditions , standard , and relation there was still piece of work to be done .
OnLabor Day , we need to think back and respect the floor of labor leaderTony Mazzocchi , who dedicate his biography to fighting for the right hand of workers , and whose effortsled to the musical passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act .
The espouse selection is fromThe valet Who Hated Work and Loved Laborby Les Leopold . It has been adapted for the entanglement .
I first met Tony Mazzocchi a few months before he met Karen Silkwood.
I was a alumnus pupil who had issue forth to his cramp union office on 16th Street in Washington , DC , go for to enlist in his ultra occupational health and condom movement . Tony had other plan for me and for the social movement .
His musical theme was impossibly mere — and perhaps simply unacceptable . He wanted to construct a new working - year economic science crusade , and he wanted me to help .
“ expect , ” he say , “ I suppose the post – World War Two boom is over . worker should be ready to learn about the problem of capitalism . ”
All I had to do was postdate the same gradation Tony had taken to launch the health and condom motion . First we ’d design a course .
Then we ’d write a popular book based on the form . “ Just do n’t apply a lot of Marxist jargon , ” Tony enunciate . Presto , a raw move would be born ! I tried to believe him .
That fall , David Gordon , the noted radical economist , piloted our new political saving path for extremity of the Oil , Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union ( OCAW ) at the Rutgers Labor Education Center in New Jersey .
No surprise: We did not spark a mass movement. But it did lead in 1975 to the creation of the Labor Institute in New York.
Tony ’s method for ultra societal alteration was joyous and communal , involve stimulating conversation and lots of strident meals with friend .
As early as the 1950s , when the terminus environs was nowhere on the political radar , Tony learned about nuclear fallout and start integrating environmental concern into his review of capitalism and his union work .
His environmental radicalism grew in the 1960s and ’ LXX when he realized that corporations were volitionally exposing worker to toxic , even lethal , substance to increase productiveness and profits .
In the late 1980s, Tony was arguing that global warming might force us to fundamentally alter capitalism.
He believe that the struggle of capital against nature was the irreconcilable contradiction in terms that would drive systemic change .
For me , Tony conjured up a labor movement movement that did n’t really exist , but just might .
This motion would be competitive and green . It would n’t just push to protect the workforce from toxic substances — it would eliminate them . It would bring about radical change that would stop global thaw .
It would give workers real control over the quality and pace of work and over corporate investment decisions.
It would defend the fight against militarism and for judge and equality . It would come through life history - enhancing social program such as free health aid .
It would presume to produce a new political party to anticipate the collective mastery of the two major party . In little , it would make good on its potential to transform American capitalism into something much more humanist .
When Tony talk about unsubtle social programs , there were no sectarian overtones and no ’ 60 hype . He poked through the take over soundness that our inequitable , unsustainable economy was the just system that had ever been and could ever be .
He would continually require why millions of the great unwashed were adhere in low - pay , all in - end business — and why even well - pay job sentenced workers to so many occupational illnesses . He want every worker to have paid sabbatical from work , a guarantee income , and barren memory access to gamey education .
Tony’s big ideas led to Tony’s big actions—and both differentiated him from nearly every other modern labor leader.
He progress bridge from the often insular labor movement to all the other major movements of his clock time — women’s lib , environmentalism , antiwar , civil right .
He was instrumental in building the occupational health and safety movement , the environmental wellness movement , and alliance , as well as in create a new propagation of worker - orient occupational wellness master . yard of workers ’ lives were spare as a resultant role .
He was anti-corporate to the core.
He cerebrate that the drive for ever - increasing profits was in cardinal conflict with public health , proletarian health and safety , and a sound environs . He fear that growing corporate mogul could lead to authoritarianism .
The antidote was turn popular unions with an dynamic social rank and file . Most of all , he thought we had it all rearwards : The purpose of life was not to moil until we dropped to enrich someone else . Rather it was to live sprightliness to its fullest by work less , not more .
Then why didn’t Tony Mazzocchi become a household name?
Why did n’t he succeed in turning the labour movement upside down ? Maybe he was blocked by his fearsome enemies — including CIA operatives in his own union . The nation ’s most potent corporate interests , from Big Oil to the atomic industry , did n’t like Tony very much , either .
Or maybe he was just too principled . His friends worried that he was too idealistic and pure to grab power when it was there for the grabbing .
Tony Mazzocchi hop-skip to lay out the stepping - stone to lead succeeding generations to a healthy and more equitable order . I hope this book will aid those generations , as they move along those spotty stone , to take courage from the insolent dreamer who put them in berth .
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