Published August 2004 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd The Heritage of Hard Work: Labor Day 2004
The first Monday in September is set aside each year to recognize the dignity of work and to thank American workers for their contributions to making a better and stronger country. It is a special day when men and women from all vocations join in celebration and recreation. Labor Day is an old and honorable American tradition. In 1893, legislation was introduced in Congress to establish Labor Day as a federal holiday. The next year, President Grover Cleveland signed the legislation into law, and today, 110 years later, we still use this day to honor those who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. This Labor Day, it is most appropriate to recognize some of West Virginia's outstanding labor leaders and their contributions to American labor history and to our beloved state. Frank Keeney, Fred Mooney, and Bill Blizzard were rank-and-file leaders of Southern West Virginia coal miners in the early 20th century who helped to lay the foundation for the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in our state. Arnold Miller of Cabin Creek was a leader in the black lung movement in the 1960's who was elected president of that great union. Current UMWA president Cecil Roberts also hails from Cabin Creek. John Easton of Williamstown in Wood County was a flint glass worker who served as president of the West Virginia State Federation of Labor during the 1920's and as an official in the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the 1930's. Miles Stanley of Dunbar was president of his local steelworkers union and helped to negotiate the merger that formed the West Virginia AFL-CIO, of which he served as president from 1957 to 1974. Ned Guthrie of Morgantown and later Charleston was the national legislative director of the American Federation of Musicians Union in the 1980's and was instrumental in bringing collective bargaining rights to that profession. And there was the great Walter Reuther from Wheeling, who was president of the United Auto Workers in 1946, president of the CIO in 1952, and vice president of the AFL-CIO in 1955. He was an important advisor to a number of Democratic presidents, especially John F. Kennedy. This Labor Day, I thank all West Virginia workers. The work they do each day, whether mining coal, pumping gas, cutting meat in a grocery store, or serving the public, is important. West Virginia's history boasts many well-known labor leaders, but it is all of us, working together, that combine to make America a great nation. August 11, 2004