HAPPY LABOR DAY! NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT WHO'S BEEN TRYING TO RUIN IT SINCE 1906
A fact-packed guide to the latest billionaire-backed tradition of kicking teachers while the hot dogs are still on the grill
Happy Labor Day, America! That glorious Monday when we honor the working men and women who fought, bled, and occasionally got shot by Pinkerton agents so you could enjoy a three-day weekend. And what better way to celebrate than with a fresh serving of union-busting theater, courtesy of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and the Senate HELP Committee — because nothing says "we care about workers" quite like dropping an anti-union report on the holiday literally created to honor unions.
The timing, one must admit, has a certain audacity. It's like showing up to someone's birthday party to announce you're canceling birthdays.
The Play: Blame the Teachers
Here's the setup. Sen. Cassidy's Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee — a committee that, delightfully, has the word Labor right there in its name — has released a report targeting the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The argument? These unions have "drifted" from their core mission of education and are instead spending too much time on politics, social advocacy, and — clutch the pearls — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
The NEA, you see, was granted a federal charter by Congress in 1906 — back when Teddy Roosevelt was president and the forward pass had just been legalized in football. The charter's purpose: "to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching." Cassidy's committee argues the NEA has strayed so far from that mission that Congress should consider revoking or amending the charter.
Now, to be crystal clear: stripping the charter wouldn't actually stop the NEA from operating. The union would continue right on representing 3 million teachers. But it would deliver a symbolic gut-punch — which, in the modern culture war playbook, is often the entire point. Why solve a problem when you can perform solving a problem on cable news?
The report's greatest hits include:
- 📊 $670 million in political and social advocacy spending since 2015 — shocking, said no one who has ever watched a corporation spend that on a single lobbying quarter
- 📉 Declining test scores — blamed on union activism, not, say, a global pandemic, chronic underfunding, or poverty
- 🎓 "Partisan curricula" focused on race, gender, and "controversial historical narratives" — otherwise known as history
- ✡️ Accusations of fostering antisemitism through union-backed materials — a serious charge that conveniently also serves as a culture war accelerant
It's a masterclass in the genre. Take real concerns, season liberally with culture war spice, and serve hot just before a federal holiday.
An Ancient and Honorable Tradition: Hating Unions Since Before Your Grandfather Was Born
Let's give credit where it's due. The right-wing war on organized labor is not new. It is not creative. It is, as the headline suggests, a tradition since Hector was a pup — and Hector, in this metaphor, was probably a Pinkerton agent.
The timeline reads like a greatest-hits album nobody asked for:
- 1892 – Homestead Strike: Carnegie Steel hired Pinkerton agents to break a steelworkers' strike. Armed guards vs. workers. Workers lost. Carnegie kept the profits.
- 1894 – Pullman Strike: President Grover Cleveland sent federal troops to crush a railroad strike. Eugene Debs went to prison. The workers got nothing. Cleveland got a holiday named after him — Labor Day, ironically, created partly to smooth over the optics of that very crackdown.
- 1947 – Taft-Hartley Act: A Republican Congress passed it over Truman's veto, banning secondary boycotts, enabling "right-to-work" laws, and generally putting the brakes on labor's post-New Deal momentum. Truman called it a "slave labor bill." History has been... somewhat kinder to Truman's assessment.
- 1981 – Reagan fires PATCO: President Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers for striking and permanently replaced them. The message to corporate America was unmistakable: open season. Union density, which had peaked above 30% in the 1950s, began its long, steep decline.
- 2018 – Janus v. AFSCME: The Supreme Court ruled that public-sector workers can't be required to pay union dues — effectively making every government workplace in America "right-to-work" overnight. Teachers' unions lost hundreds of millions in funding.
And now, 2026: A Senate committee chair releases an anti-union report on Labor Day weekend. The wheel turns. The tradition endures.
Why Teachers? Follow the Money — and the Membership Cards
Here's the thing the billionaire class understands with crystalline clarity, even if they'd prefer you didn't think about it too hard:
The NEA and AFT are the two largest unions in the United States.
The NEA alone represents over 3 million members. The AFT adds another 1.7 million. Together, they dwarf the Teamsters, the SEIU, and virtually every other labor organization in the country. They have money, organizational infrastructure, and — most terrifyingly to certain people — they can turn out voters.
That's the real threat. Not DEI curricula. Not "partisan" lesson plans. It's the fact that a well-funded, well-organized teachers' union can register voters, knock on doors, and mobilize parents in every school district in America. That is a political force that no amount of dark money can easily replicate.
So the playbook is elegant in its cynicism:
- Don't attack unions for raising wages — that's unpopular with actual workers
- Attack them for "ideology" — culture war is more emotionally resonant than labor economics
- Tie DEI, "critical race theory," and "gender ideology" to union leadership — make parents feel the union is the enemy of their children, not the defender of their children's teachers
- Chip away at funding, membership, and public legitimacy — weaker unions mean lower wages, fewer benefits, and less political opposition
It's not subtle. But it doesn't need to be. It just needs to be loud enough to work.
What Unions Actually Built (You're Welcome, By the Way)
Before we get too deep into the culture war fog, let's remember what we're actually talking about when we talk about what unions have done for American workers — union and non-union alike:
| What You Enjoy at Work | Who Fought For It |
|---|---|
| The 8-hour workday | Labor unions, 1886 onward |
| The 40-hour workweek | AFL-CIO, codified in FLSA 1938 |
| Paid weekends | Union collective bargaining |
| Overtime pay | Wagner Act / FLSA |
| Employer-sponsored health insurance | Post-WWII union contracts |
| Paid vacation and sick leave | Collective bargaining agreements |
| Workplace safety standards (OSHA) | Labor movement pressure, 1970 |
| Child labor prohibitions | Union advocacy, early 20th century |
| Defined-benefit pensions | Union contracts, mid-20th century |
| Protection from arbitrary firing | "Just cause" provisions in CBAs |
Every single item on that list was taken from corporations and employers through collective action. None of it was volunteered. None of it was gifted. It was organized, demanded, struck for, and sometimes died for.
And here's the kicker economists love to point out: non-union workers benefit too. When union density was high, non-union employers had to match union wages and benefits to prevent their own workers from organizing. As union density collapsed from 30%+ in the 1950s to roughly 10% today, that "threat effect" evaporated — and wage stagnation for the entire working class followed. The inverse relationship between union density and income inequality is one of the most well-documented patterns in modern labor economics.
When the top 10% of earners now capture 45–50% of national income — levels not seen since the eve of the Great Depression — and union density sits at historic lows, that is not a coincidence. That is a consequence.
A Brief Detour: The Rest of the World Is Watching and Confused
It's worth noting, with some gentle amusement, that the United States' approach to labor relations is genuinely baffling to most of the developed world.
In Germany, workers hold up to half the seats on corporate supervisory boards by law. Works councils have co-determination rights over scheduling, safety, and hiring. Sectoral bargaining covers entire industries at once, so companies can't undercut each other by crushing wages.
In Sweden, collective bargaining agreements cover 85–90% of the workforce — not because union membership is legally required, but because the system was designed to make joining a union the obvious, rational choice. There is no statutory minimum wage because unions negotiate wage floors for virtually everyone.
In the United States, a union must organize one Starbucks at a time, fight a multi-year legal battle for each location, and then watch corporations deploy armies of consultants, mandatory "captive audience" meetings, and procedural delays to exhaust the effort before a contract is ever signed.
The American model is, to put it diplomatically, uniquely hostile to workers among peer nations. Sen. Cassidy's report is not an aberration. It is the system working exactly as designed — for the people who designed it.
Remember in November: The Stakes on the Ballot
Here's where it gets personal — and practical.
In less than two months, Americans will vote in elections up and down the ballot. School board races. State legislative seats. Congressional seats. Senate seats. And the contrast could not be cleaner:
On one side: Candidates who support fully funded public schools, teachers' rights to organize, collective bargaining, and the professionals who spend their days educating your children.
On the other side: Candidates who think the biggest problem in American education is that teachers have a union — and whose donors would very much like to redirect public school funding into private, unaccountable hands through voucher programs while simultaneously defunding the unions that hold those schools accountable to workers and communities.
The teachers in your local school aren't DEI ideologues. They're the person who noticed your kid was struggling with fractions and stayed after class. They're the one who spotted the signs that something was wrong at home. They're the professional who spent their own money on classroom supplies because the budget ran out in October.
Their union is what stands between them and a system that would pay them poverty wages, strip their job protections, and replace them with the cheapest available option — because in the absence of collective bargaining, that is precisely what market forces produce.
The Bottom Line
Sen. Cassidy's Labor Day report is not really about the NEA's federal charter. It's not really about test scores. It's the latest chapter in a very old book — the one where powerful interests dress up their desire to crush worker organizing in the language of patriotism, values, and now, culture war.
The tradition is as American as apple pie and as old as the Homestead Strike. The tactics have evolved from Pinkerton agents to Senate committee reports, but the goal has never changed: weaker unions mean more power and more money for the people already at the top.
This Labor Day, enjoy the cookout. Appreciate the three-day weekend. And remember who fought to give it to you — and who has been trying to take it back ever since.
Vote accordingly in November. 🗳️
"The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1965
Sources & Citations
🏛️ Sen. Cassidy / HELP Committee Report on Teachers Unions
Fox News — "Sen. Bill Cassidy pushes to strip NEA of its congressional charter" 🔗 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nations-largest-teachers-union-under-fire-controversial-agenda-puts-century-old-federal-charter-risk
Yahoo News / Inside Higher Ed — "Senate Report Scrutinizes Teachers Unions' Politics" 🔗 https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/senate-report-scrutinizes-teachers-unions-195008107.html
EIN Presswire — "Chairman Cassidy Releases Bombshell Report Showing Teachers Unions Harming Children, Prioritizing Radical Ideology Over Student Success" 🔗 https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/939146163/chairman-cassidy-releases-bombshell-report-showing-teachers-unions-harming-children-prioritizing-radical-ideology-over-student-success
New York Post (Opinion) — "Revoking NEA's charter is a good step toward holding teachers unions accountable for failing kids" 🔗 https://nypost.com/2026/09/04/opinion/revoking-neas-charter-is-a-good-step-toward-holding-teachers-unions-accountable-for-failing-kids/
📜 History of Anti-Union Opposition in America
AFL-CIO — History of the Labor Movement in the United States 🔗 https://aflcio.org/about/history
U.S. Department of Labor — The Wagner Act / National Labor Relations Act (1935) 🔗 https://www.dol.gov/agencies/olms/regs/statutes/esca/nlra
Cornell ILR School (Kheel Center) — Homestead Strike & Pullman Strike Historical Archives 🔗 https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homestead/
National Archives — Taft-Hartley Act (1947) Legislative History 🔗 https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/taft-hartley
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library — PATCO Strike (1981) 🔗 https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/reagans/reagan-administration/patco-strike
⚖️ Janus v. AFSCME & Modern Legal Challenges
SCOTUSblog — Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (2018) 🔗 https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/janus-v-afscme-council-31/
Economic Policy Institute — "Janus and the Future of Public-Sector Unions" 🔗 https://www.epi.org/publication/janus-and-the-future-of-public-sector-unions/
💰 Union Density, Wage Inequality & the Middle Class
Economic Policy Institute — "Unions and Inequality: How Declining Unionization Widens the Wage Gap" 🔗 https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-and-inequality/
Economic Policy Institute — "The Union Wage Premium" 🔗 https://www.epi.org/publication/union-wage-premium/
Pew Research Center — "Union Membership Has Been Falling for Decades" 🔗 https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/19/union-membership-has-been-falling-for-decades/
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) — Union Members Summary (Annual Report) 🔗 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm
🌍 U.S. vs. European Labor Models
International Labour Organization (ILO) — Collective Bargaining Coverage & Industrial Relations Systems 🔗 https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/collective-bargaining-labour-relations/lang--en/index.htm
Hans Böckler Foundation (Germany) — Works Councils & Codetermination (Mitbestimmung) 🔗 https://www.boeckler.de/en/codetermination-mitbestimmung-21.htm
OECD — Trade Union Coverage and Collective Bargaining Statistics 🔗 https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TUD
🏫 NEA & AFT — Primary Sources
National Education Association (NEA) — Official Website 🔗 https://www.nea.org
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — Official Website 🔗 https://www.aft.org
NEA Federal Charter (1906) — via U.S. Congress 🔗 https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title36/subtitle2/partB/chapter2131&edition=prelim
🗳️ Voting & Civic Action
Vote.gov — Register to Vote / Find Your Polling Place 🔗 https://vote.gov
National Education Association — Voter Registration & Advocacy 🔗 https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/action-center
Note: All institutional URLs (BLS, DOL, Archives, SCOTUS, ILO, OECD) are stable government and intergovernmental sources. News article links were verified via live search results as of September 7, 2026. The EPI and Pew Research links reflect their most current published reports on union density and wage inequality.
