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children. As I read this in my son's history book, I could not help but feel pride in the fact, that as an NTEU steward, I am helping further the goals of my co-workers. I am taking part in a process that has been a guaranteed right to me as an American worker. I explained this to my son and advised him to never take these rights for granted. We also discussed how the current administration is very different from the Roosevelt administration and that NTEU continues to fight for those rights that were established so long ago… I was reading the current NTEU Bulletin on my bus ride to work the next morning when something really caught my attention. The article explained how NTEU had just won over $80,000 in back pay and damages for 40 employees of the Food and Nutrition Service. The employees had been improperly exempted from coverage under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and were all reclassified… I smiled and thought of our history lesson the night before, and how history really does repeat itself! l |
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History Repeats Itself! One evening this week, I sat down with my teenage son to help him study for an important history exam on the Great Depression. It covered the 1930's, Roosevelt's "New Deal" and the major legislative changes that were made during that time. His history book described the suffering and starvation in the "Dust Bowl"; how many mothers watched their children starve to death while men wandered the streets looking for work and food. This was the era of the "Soup Kitchen" and "Hobos"- men who took to wandering the country riding freight trains and begging for food. Children actually dug frozen vegetables from the fields and killed small birds and rodents to cook and eat. Few of us remember this America… or want to remember it. It was like a third-world country. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal introduced many programs that put Americans back to work so they could feed their families. During the 1930's, a huge number of legislative changes were made that not only helped Americans survive this terrible time, but greatly changed America itself. In addition to controls on the Banking and Securities industries (the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Deposit Insurance Commission were formed), the Social Security system was established, along with Aide to Families with Dependent Children and the Unemployment Commission. The WPA (Works Progress Administration) put people to work building huge public projects, including dams, schools, highways and parks. For the first time, women and minorities were given important government positions. In 1935, the Wagner Act firmly established the right of workers to organize, join unions, and collectively bargain. In 1938, another important piece of American legislation was enacted. This was the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and it significantly changed the life of the American worker. The FLSA introduced the concept of a 40-hour workweek, payment of a decent minimum wage, as well as work protections for |
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