It’s Time for a National Monument to Labor Hero Frances Perkins

If you work for a living, you owe every comfort—every safety measure, every break, every vacation day—to Frances Perkins, the nation’s first-ever woman to serve as a Cabinet secretary.

During her 12 years as secretary of labor, Perkins transformed work in the United States. To address the devastation of the Great Depression, she advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt on creating a public works program that put unemployed Americans back to work building critical infrastructure across the country. She was the powerhouse behind many of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, establishing a federal minimum wage and overtime pay and banning child labor exploitation. And she was the chair of the Committee on Economic Security, which created the blueprint for Social Security. Frances Perkins got it done.

As the first woman to lead the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of labor unions, I am deeply inspired by the example that Secretary Perkins set. Even though her work has touched the lives of every working person in America, Perkins remains an unsung hero in our national history.

It’s time to change that. President Joe Biden, the most pro-labor president at least since FDR and arguably in American history, now has an opportunity to recognize Secretary Perkins’ remarkable legacy by designating the Perkins Homestead in Newcastle, Maine, as a national monument and a part of the national park system.

Monuments tell the story of who we are as a country. They connect us to past generations, and they serve as educational tools and inspirations for our future. They reflect our deepest-held values. But historically, our monuments have failed to capture the critical roles women have played in our nation’s story.

This past March, Biden signed an executive order to increase the representation of women in our national parks and historical sites, and depicted in monuments. A public monument dedicated to Frances Perkins would greatly expand our collective imagination about what’s possible in America—exactly in line with what Perkins herself believed. She knew that maintaining a broken status quo that leaves our friends and neighbors behind is far more dangerous than being brave and trying something new.

In a last-minute attempt to negotiate a new contract, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins met today with representatives of the United Mine Workers and Pennsylvania Anthracite Operators at the Waldorf-Astoria. The meeting ended without agreement.

Secretary Perkins once said that “a healthy discontent keeps us alert to the changing needs of our time.” When I travel the country and speak to working people and organizers, I hear that same spirit of productive unrest.

I hear these workers say they’re tired of the way things have been going. I hear them say they’re tired of their rent going up while their paychecks don’t go as far as they used to. They’re tired of watching CEOs get richer and richer while they struggle to save for the future.

But I also hear something else very clearly: Workers are fighting back. Workers are growing our power in this country in a way we haven’t seen in a generation. Together, we are a force to be reckoned with.

This post originally appeared in Newsweek.