Labor Day, September 3, 2012

I remember when I was in 5th grade the teacher took us on a trip to a factory so we could see how are shoes were made. We were packed up in a bus and toured the Endicott Johnson Shoe company. The noise, the smells, the activity  in what was at one time the largest shoe company in America formed a powerful image on me. This is what work was like in the real world!!! If it is I better stay in school.

E-J started as the Lester Shoe company in the 1850's as work was changing and it was the site of some interesting developments in labor history as machinery was instituted to make shoes faster. One stitching machine could do the work of 80 people and the factory system took over. The old craftsmen seeing themselves displaced by "green hands"- immigrants hired to run the machines, formed a labor organization called the Knights of St Crispin which tried a strike in 1869 and failed, The Knights disappeared in the depression of 1873 unable to buck the trend by owners treating their employees like just another machine

The original owners started to retire and die out in the 1890s and the Endicott Shoe company bought out the remaining Lesters and Johnson, the foreman, was brought in as a partner. Lestershire became Johnson City and the company changed the way it dealt with the workers and began an era where the company tried to provide all the needs (churches, schools, hospitals, parks, minor league baseball teams, housing etc, )of the workers in order to keep them so they did not feel the need to unionize. For many years the plants were seen as a benevolent capitalism model, some called it "welfare capitalism".  The company lost its market shares in the 1960's as shoe companies went overseas in order to control costs. Instead of paying for a worker to feed his or her family, the plan changed to piecework by third world children. Our school teachers tried to tell us how progressive Endicott Johnson was as a company with its interest in the welfare of its employees, but it died in the encroaching of the rust belt in the northeast. E-J's demise became an object lesson on venture capitalists about the need to focus on making lots of money for their investors instead of treating workers with respect.

On this Labor Day it seems like Labor is only being tolerated rather than respected as the campaign to get rid of what politicians like to call "entitlements" e.g. retirement pensions programs, medical care, safety regulations works its way across the system.

Creator God, you who worked to create this world, help us to remember that Jesus worked with his hands as a carpenter, help us to treat with respect all those who work for wages to feed their families in factories, mines, motels, restaurants, stores. Send your spirit of compassion to overcome our greed so that we will work together as a nation on building your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven where justice is shown as your love distributed. Amen