Source: Times West Virginian
Date: August 30, 2025
FAIRMONT — As the Trump Administration unravels the successes of the labor movement, union organizers hope Sunday’s annual Labor Day Picnic in Mannington reminds people of the sacrifices their ancestors made in the name of creating good working conditions.
“The Mine Wars of the early 1900s, which formed here, these battles were fought right here in West Virginia, and gave a tremendous amount to working folks all across this country,” former State Sen. Mike Caputo said. “They used to make us live in company houses and shop at company stores, and we had to go to the company doctor. And if it wasn’t for the unions fighting all that, we’d still be living like slaves. That’s what they treated coal miners like back in those days.”
The Labor Day Picnic takes place yearly in Mannington, and is nominally about celebrating unions and the victories workers won against exploitation from business interests. Since the inauguration, President Trump stripped hundreds of thousands of federal workers of their collective bargaining rights, fired the general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, land left the body unable to hear labor disputes, and has left two important spots on the board vacant. The NLRB exists to ensure companies follow the laws that protect workers in the 1935 Labor Relations Act.
Last week, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the NLRB’s current structure was unconstitutional. The current structure prevents the board’s five members and administrative judges from being removed at will by the president. A law currently shields those members from at will removal. The majority of the court’s judges were picked by Republican presidents, with Trump appointing three justices in 2018.
As the landscape with regards to labor rights changes, Caputo said, people need to realize how important unions are, because without anyone to fight the political power of large business interests, things will go backward.
“That’s evident if you look back in labor history, it wasn’t about safety, it was all about profits and production,” Caputo said. “They even let little kids go into a coal mine. And the union, fortunately, throughout the years, was able to put a stop to all that. Sometimes you don’t know what you have to till you lose it.”
Erin Bates, communications director for the United Mine Workers of America, said the federal government needs to take into more consideration how its treating the everyday American worker. Billionaires do nothing to help take care of the average American and people need to be able to lean on each other, Bates said.
Events like the Labor Day Picnic take the focus off of billionaires and place it back onto workers.
“Strength comes from masses, and so being able to get together for an event like Labor Day, and showing there’s strength in numbers and recognizing that there’s a lot more middle class, lower middle class American workers than there are billionaires,” Bates said. “I think being able to have a day where labor comes together and celebrates what we as normal Americans are doing for this country is a huge deal. And they need to recognize, there’s power in numbers.”
Bates added the notion of representation and having a voice at the workplace be unconstitutional is ridiculous.
Mark Dorsey, president of AFL-CIO in Marion County and one of the organizers of the picnic, said workers built the country. He said a lot of gains workers fought for a hundred years ago were called unrealistic by large businesses, such as the eight hour work day, health care and safety measures. Dorsey said jobs shouldn’t kill the people who work them.
“They said the bosses would never give in, but our collective power made it happen, our solidarity giving us the strength to fight for the better life workers deserve,” he said.
The picnic begins at 1 p.m. at Hough Park in Mannington.
Written By: Esteban Fernandez
