Union Workers and Big Yellow Buses

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Aug. 30, 2025

Another Labor Day will be marginally celebrated and mostly forgotten. It’s just a meaningless day off for many people. We might as well call it No Labor Day.

The first hint of such a holiday occurred in New York in 1882, a parade specifically celebrating union workers. It became a federal holiday in 1894. May 1 was the initial idea, but it came too close to other worker holidays, so was moved permanently to the first Monday in September.

There used to be massive parades in major cities and celebrations in most, with a focus on union members and manufacturing jobs. But many of those jobs are now gone and unions have shriveled to a shadow of their former selves. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership in the U.S. peaked in 1955, when fully 33 percent of the American workforce was unionized. By 2024, union membership was down to 9.9 percent of the workforce, mostly in government and education, with only 6 percent in the private sector.

The U.S. manufacturing economy was exploding in the 1950s. Veterans had returned from winning World War II and had settled into factory jobs or starting their own businesses. It was a time of boundless opportunity for some and created a growth spurt in the burgeoning middle class.

Those jobs, mostly stable and mostly unionized, continued to provide meaningful wages and benefits. By 1979, there were nearly 20 million manufacturing jobs, but that was the peak of manufacturing sector job opportunities. By 2023, only 12.7 million manufacturing jobs remained.

(In 1945 the state of Pennsylvania alone produced more steel than Germany and Japan combined, but we had just bombed both countries’ steel producing industry into near oblivion, so outproducing them wasn’t much of an accomplishment. Now, we produce less than China, India, or Japan.)

So, what happened to all the manufacturing and the accompanying jobs?

Manufacturing and its jobs were outsourced where both labor and materials were cheaper as corporate shareholders demanded higher returns on their investment, government policies like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) made it both easier and more profitable for U.S. companies to outsource manufacturing and assembly, and automation all contributed to the decline of manufacturing and manufacturing jobs, according to research at MIT.

Unions became easy and convenient targets for some politicians who claimed collective bargaining drove up prices and reduced productivity—factually dubious but politically effective claims.

That same period marked some serious wage stagnation among U.S. earners according to the American Economic Association. Wages mostly treading water coincides with the outsourcing of jobs, the rise of right-to-work laws designed to break unions and their ability to collectively bargain for wages and benefits, and government policies that were designed to improve corporate bottom lines but did so at the expense of workers.

And so, the middle class began to shrink. According to Pew Research Center, by 1971, fully 61 percent of American households were considered “middle class,” but by 2024 that figure was down to less than 50 percent.

The U.S. Department of Labor now defines “middle class” as household income between two-thirds to twice the national or state-level median income or $52,000 to $155,000. The broad range is because the number varies depending on location. Income needed to be “middle class” in Silicon Valley is considerably more than that needed in Grand Traverse County, for example.

That same Department of Labor now says we still have 35 million Americans working in manufacturing jobs, but their definition of manufacturing is wildly broad and includes such categories as fishing, farming, and forestry, among others.

The reality is we have outsourced the middle class for some cheaper labor and better returns for investors. The labor we used to celebrate got mostly left behind.

With Labor Day comes back to school. It is once again time for those giant yellow buses to be among us mornings and afternoons. They will be stopping frequently. When those buses are stopped with red lights flashing traffic MUST STOP whether behind them or approaching them.

Yes, this means all of us, whether we are late for an appointment or paying little attention or anything else. Buses now have cameras, and they will photograph the fools who refuse to stop and law enforcement will come calling with a hefty fine.

Those stopped buses are either loading or unloading children, sometimes very young children who might not look before darting across the street. According to the National Safety Council, half a dozen children were killed loading or unloading in 2023, the last year for final statistics. And according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 128 people died in passenger vehicle/bus collisions, nearly all the fatalities from the passenger vehicle.

A little extra caution around the buses will be greatly appreciated by the bus drivers, students, and their parents. Just stop.