NAME:____________________________
Labor Union Activities 
A. Examine each of the following pictures, and identify the following:
characters, artist’s purpose, cartoon’s meaning
Characters:
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Artist’s
purpose:_______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
NAME:____________________________
Cartoon’s
meaning:_______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Characters:_____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Artist’s
purpose:_______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Cartoon’s
meaning:_______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
NAME:____________________________
*This is a modern day political cartoon.
Characters:_____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Author’s
purpose:_______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Cartoon’s
meaning:_______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
NAME:____________________________
Characters:_____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Author’s
purpose:_______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Cartoon’s
meaning:_______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
NAME:____________________________
Labor Unions Literacy Activities- Read the following articles and answer the
questions that follow on a separate sheet of paper.
Obama on Labor Day touts economic gains
under his leadership, is mum on pressing
world concerns
Published September 01, 2014
FoxNews.com
Sept. 1, 2014: President Obama speaks at Laborfest 2014, at Henry Maier Festival Park, in
Milwaukee, Wis.AP
President Obama used Labor Day to tout the country’s economic gains under his leadership and
make an election-year case that higher wages and other progress for workers can only be
achieved through a Democrat-controlled Congress.
“American workers and the American economy are better off since I took office,” Obama told a
crowd filled with union supporters at the annual Laborfest event in Milwaukee.
“I’m not asking for the moon. I’m asking for policies that help folks get ahead. … Republicans
running Congress are opposed to them.”
At one point in the speech, Obama enthusiastically told the crowd: “If I were looking for a good
job that lets me build some security for my family, I’d join a union.”
While never specifically mentioning the mid-term elections in which Democrats are trying to
keep control of the Senate, Obama repeatedly blamed Republicans for trying to block such
efforts as immigration reform, increasing the federal minimum wage and lowering the cost of
health care through the ObamaCare.
“Don’t boo, vote,” Obama told the crowd, recycling one of his popular lines from his 2012
reelection campaign.
Obama, who attended the event while running for president in 2008, also reminded the crowd
that he took office in the early stages of the so-called Great Recession and highlighted some of
the progress made in the recovery -- including U.S. businesses adding nearly 10 million jobs
over the past 53 months.
“Despite what the critics say, America is on the move,” Obama said.
He also pointed out that the U.S. unemployment rate now stands at 6.2 percent, dropping 1.1
points over the past year, after peaking at 10 percent in October 2009.
NAME:____________________________
However, hourly wages have decreased since mid-2013 for essentially every income group,
except for the country’s lowest wage-earners, who benefited from states increasing their
minimum wage.
The president made no mention of the country’s pressing international concerns, including
Russia’s presence in Ukraine and what his administration plans to do about the rising threat in
the Middle East of the militant group Islamic State.
Obama was greeted at the Milwaukee airport by Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker, who nearly
lost his job in a 2011 recall election because of his efforts to cut budget shortfalls by eliminating
public sector unions’ collective-bargaining agreements for pensions, wage increases and health
care.
However, Mary Burke, the Democrat who is running in November against Walker, attended
Laborfest but did not appear on stage with Obama, who has low job-approval ratings.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What event was President Obama speaking at? Who was his audience?
Describe his purpose of speaking to this audience.
In Obama’s opinion, why should Americans join a union?
How did he respond when the crowd “booed” him?
What statistics does the president use when referencing the progress made
during his presidency?
6. Based on this article, and what you already know… assess the role labor
unions play in presidential elections.
NAME:____________________________
Labor Day brings focus to economy,
declining union membership
Published September 01, 2014
FoxNews.com
69
FILE: Dec. 11, 2012: Union members and supporters march to the Michigan State Capitol to
protest against right-to-work legislation, in Lansing, Mich.REUTERS
With Labor Day marking the traditional time for Americans to take stock in the successes and
failures of the country’s centuries-long labor movement, union membership remains steady but
only a fraction of what it was during its peak in the 1950s.
The number of U.S. wage-earners also belonging to a union in 2012 and 2013 is 14.5 million, or
11 percent of the workforce, according to the most recent figures from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, compared to roughly 30 percent 64 years ago.
Union membership for public-sector unions -- whose rolls include such government employees
as teachers, police officers and firefighters -- remains relatively high at 35 percent. However, the
number of private-sector employees enrolling in unions, now at 6.7 percent, has resulted in the
overall decline in membership.
Much of the private-sector drop can be attributed to the steady decline in U.S. manufacturing,
with many goods and products now being built by overseas workers at a lesser cost.
Meanwhile, public sector unions are facing increasing pressure in the United States from
conservative lawmakers who have argued that their collective-bargaining agreements are hurting
the economy.
NAME:____________________________
They and other union critics say such agreements drive up wages that in turn causes inflation,
have resulted in pension systems threatening to bankrupt state and local governments and have
kept bad teachers from getting fired.
Critics also contend that union influences have resulted in steadily declining paychecks, pointing
out that wages remain flat while corporate profits soar, five years after the Great Recession.
President Obama on Monday will be in Milwaukee -- a state that became the focal point in the
fights over the collective bargaining deals of public employees -- to talk about the country’s
steady economic growth since the recession, while remaining mindful about the low wages and
lingering unemployment amid big corporate and investor profits.
Vice President Joe Biden took a similar Labor Day message to Detroit, telling hundreds of union
members that they deserve a "fair share" of any improvement in corporate profits.
At about the same time, the conservative think tank Freedom Foundation was recognized Labor
Day by making workers go to the office and declaring it “Right-to-Work Day” -- a reference to
legislation backed by conservative lawmakers across the country to stop agreements in which
workers have to join unions or pay dues to get or keep a job.
“If you're going to pay tribute to something, why not the freedom to keep your job even when
you choose not to join a union?” Tom McCabe, president of the Washington state-based
foundation, said Friday. “It would be hypocritical to honor the labor movement with a holiday
when we spend the rest of the year working to curb its excesses."
On Sunday, Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, called
this Labor Day a "pivotal time to take stock of where our families, our economy and our
democracy are heading."
Henry, who flew on Air Force One with Obama to Milwaukee on Monday, argued in a recent
op-ed for The Nation that collective bargaining played a key role in helping roughly 6.7 million
fast-food workers get higher pay over the past two years.
1. What is the purpose of Labor Day?
2. In what decade did labor union membership peak?
3. Based on this article, what do you think the difference is between the public
and private sector?
4. What was the percentage of labor union membership 64 years ago? What
was the percentage in 2012?
5. How does this article justify the fact that the percentage of public sector
union membership is significantly higher than that of the private sector?
6. After reading this article, do you think it is ethical for an employer to force
employees to join a union?
7. Describe the purpose of “Right to Work” Day.
NAME:____________________________