All too often the needs of workers to improve their lot is subsumed by others seeking a wider system change. Perhaps even more often the individual worker feels himself powerless to advocate with employers to improve his own lot. In the 1950s, most of the unions in the USA united under one man, George Meany, who showed what could be achieved for the worker if what they want is remembered. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
American stamp printing was sub par in the 1950s in terms of multi color availability and paper quality. Thus this stamp does not to justice to the Lumen Martin mural created for the new AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington DC. The mural is really a mosaic consisting of over 300,000 pieces that shows a journey through the history of labor with emphasis on the majesty of the labor itself. This allowed the work to rise above the political toward universal truths.
Todays stamp is issue A529, a 3 cent stamp issued by the United States on September 3rd, 1959. The single stamp issue was issued to celebrate labor day that year and the coming together of the vast majority of the labor movement into the newly formed AFL-CIO. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used. This is a little surprising as it was a stamp designed for postal use rather than collectors. It was common for collectors to keep for themselves a plate or zip block of four out of a bigger sheet of stamps. In more recent years it was common for stamp dealers to use great numbers of mint 50s-70s stamps in modern postage. This created exciting looking stamp parcels but greatly reduced stocks of the mint versions of these stamps. If the hobby survives, mint versions of 50s-70s American mint stamps may have some upside in valueation.
The AFL-CIO was formed in 1955 under George Meany, an Irishman from Harlem who had rose up from a plumbers union. There were several cross currents in addition to company managements affecting labor at the time. There was the effort of the international socialists to subsume labor into their coalition for class struggle. There was the draw of organized crime into labor due to the propensity for places where graft and racketeering were possible. In addition there was a desire of the black civil rights movement that unions specifically advance the interests of blacks, even where that conflicts with existing union membership. Keeping competition down was also the reason immigration into the USA was then opposed by labor. Meany believed that the union was better served specifically using it’s power to advocate for individual workers receiving more work, higher wages, and better conditions. To do this he expelled the longshoreman union for mob conections, he fired a textile union head foe stealing dues, and he allowed membership of unions that excluded by their own choice black applicants. Meany supported the Vietnam War because the war contracts provided extra work for union members. Some of these positions would anger those on the left, but the result was the pinnacle of American union power and the achievement of the highest wages for labor in the history of the world to date.
After George Meany retired in 1979, the labor movement declined and an ever increasing percentage of union members were government workers. Since they can’t strike, the dues manly act as a tax due on government workers to support the Democratic Party. Thus since 1980, the value of unskilled or semi skilled labor in the USA has not kept up with the rest the economy and with that trend the growth of populist politics on the right and left. Lane Kirkland, Meany’s successor most famous quote was “If hard work was such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.” A big change from Meany,
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast George Meany. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.
Update. The headquarters building that houses the mural in the lobby was attacked and a fire set in the lobby during the protests following the death of George Floyd. The building survived and the front was boarded up and mercy was asked by knuckling under and placing a BLM banner. The social justice warriors of today don’t seem to understand the importance of the labor movement to the political left. First published in 2020.