Council passes resolution to mark May as Labor History Month

Under a City Council resolution passed last week, the Department of Education would mark May as Labor History Month in public schools across New York City. The month of May includes International Workers Day, known as May Day, celebrated every May 1, that honors the commemorates the 1886 Haymarket Riot in Chicago. 

The resolution was sponsored by Council Member Alexa Aviles who called it “crucial” to pass so that young workers can have knowledge of past labor struggles when they enter the workforce.

“We owe so much to the labor leaders of history who have stood up to demand protections we take for granted now—2-day weekends, child labor laws, and workplace safety protections, to name a few. Students deserve to be educated on the history of organized workers in our country,” she said in a statement. “With declining union density across the country, it’s important to champion awareness for workers' collective power.” 

The resolution’s passage does not automatically create the commemorative month. In order for Labor History Month to become official, the DOE would have to establish the designation itself. New Yorkers can fill out a form to express support for the DOE doing so online. 

A spokesperson for the DOE did not provide a comment on the resolution. 

According to a CUNY School of Labor and Urban studies report published last year, just under 22 percent of workers in New York City are members of labor unions, slightly higher than the statewide figure of 21.5 percent. 

That’s more than double the national figure of 10 percent. 

The majority of unionized workers in both the city and the state are part of the public sector, as over 65 percent of civil servants in the city and state are unionized while just 11.6 percent and 13.7 percent of workers in the private sector are unionized in the state and city respectively.  

“The workplace protections that we take for granted today were won through workers’ collective organizing. In order to equip students to fight for their own rights and protections, it’s important that they learn our history,” Eric Blanc, a labor studies professor at Rutgers University said in a statement on the resolution “. Far too often, the contributions of workers are buried or cast aside when we teach history. As an educator, I know that we must fight to keep that legacy alive inside our classrooms as union density declines and our federal administration attacks the workplace protections we are owed.”