Labor Union Documentary

This week in class we watched a documentary about the history of labor unions and the work environment and conditions. The beginning of the documentary started off talking about indentured servants, I knew what they were, but I never knew the first indentured servants were white as well. I had always thought that they were just black African-Americans.     The documentary then gets into the main point of the story and starts talking about the history of labor unions and strikes. I knew about the conditions and long workdays from history classes in the past however, every time I see pictures of the work environments and pictures of the kids in factories and coal mines, it reminds me of how lucky I am to be born in the time period I was.

            What I mean by this is we as kids could enjoy our childhood and not have to work in factories for 12 hours a day and be constantly in danger. We get learn to read, write, do math unlike many other kids in the past generations that had to work instead of getting to go to school to learn, and have a childhood. Because of everything these kids went through laws were made and changed that gives us kids today the childhood those kids could never have.

            Then I started to think about my mom and how she has the ability to work in a hospital as a therapist because of these unions and strikes as well. I could never imagine my mom sitting at home cleaning and cooking dinner as her job or even sewing. I say this because of 2 things she’s terrible at sewing and way to independent to just do nothing at home plus the fact that she’s not the greatest cook.

            So in conclusion, this documentary reminded me of everything that they went through to get us to the point we’re at today. And that I’m grateful for all that they did and went through just to show that all workers deserve equal rights, pay, and wage.