All Californians owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the labor movement - working families in California (both union members and non-members alike) today enjoy some of the best workplace protections, wages and benefits in the nation, thanks in large part to the contributions of the labor movement.

Unfortunately, California's educational curriculum has traditionally lacked the sufficient incentives and materials for properly instructing students on the subject of labor history. State law does require the state curriculum and framework, where appropriate, to include instruction on Cesar Chavez and the history of the farm labor movement.

Despite this, many history books available to students today fail to make labor history a prominent part of the curriculum.  Many students do not encounter labor history or concepts in any depth until post-secondary education, if then.  Since these issues constitute such an important component of American history (and contemporary life), students should be exposed to these concepts at an early age in textbooks and activities appropriate to student academic development.

Why is labor education important?  Consider the following partial list of protections and benefits that all workers enjoy today due to the efforts of the labor movement:

• minimum wage
• child labor laws
• the 8-hour day
• overtime
• meal and rest periods
• workplace health and safety laws
• anti-discrimination laws
• family and medical leave (including paid family leave in California)
• health care and retirement security (pensions)
• construction standards and prevailing wage laws
• career technical education and apprenticeship opportunities
• the weekend

Some examples of ways in which labor history and concepts may be built into academic curricula include the following:

• Analysis of the transformation of the American economy and the changing social and political conditions in the United States from the Industrial Revolution to the present.
  
  
• Discussion of child labor, working conditions and laissez-faire policies towards big business and examination of the labor movement, including its leaders, its demand for collective bargaining, and its strikes and protests over labor conditions.
  
  
• Analysis of the effects of the Industrial Revolution in England, France, German, Japan, Russia and the United States.
  
  
• Tracing of the evolution of work and labor, including the demise of the slave trade and effects of immigration, mining and manufacturing, division of labor, and the union movement.
  
  
• Understanding of the connections among natural resources, entrepreneurship, labor and capital in an industrial economy.
  
  
• Analysis of different explanations for the Great Depression and how the New Deal fundamentally changes the role of the federal government.
  
  
• Discussion of the advances and setbacks of organized labor, from the creation of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations to current issues of a postindustrial, multinational economy.
  
  
• Exploration of how economic rights are secured and their importance to the individual and to society.
  
  
• Understanding the operations of the labor market, including the circumstances surrounding the establishment of principal American labor unions, procedures that unions use to gain benefits for their members, the effects of unionization, the minimum wage, and unemployment insurance.

This web site includes links to many useful resources for exploring ways in which to incorporate labor concepts and labor history into educational curricula.