CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Quick, name a union leader.

This is the 130th anniversary of the first Labor Day parade -- Sept. 5, 1882 -- so there's a good chance Bob King, of the United Auto Workers; Leo Gerard, of the United Steelworkers; Cecil Roberts, of the United Mine Workers; and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will be out and about.

But unless you are connected by geography or work, you probably are unfamiliar with those men, because unions and labor issues have disappeared from most Americans' radar screens, as well as from regular news coverage.

In the heyday of unions -- 1940s into the 1970s -- labor leaders such as John L. Lewis, David McDonald, Walter Reuther and George Meany were household names, regular visitors to the White House and frequent guests on network news shows.

Those earlier leaders had it easy compared to today. They vied for a bigger piece of a growing economic pie. Jobs were increasing, and foreign competition was not yet a threat. Unions had clout.

Not today. Union membership was 11.8 percent at the end of 2011, its lowest rate in 70 years. The rate among 18- to 24-year-old workers was in single digits. Unions' political influence has been lessened by that shrinking membership and by laws restricting expenditures.

Thus, even with a Democratic administration, White House lists show more visits by financial lobbyists than by representatives of unions. Banks received bailouts with no restrictions imposed, but the auto industry bailout was closely monitored, with the administration supporting $14-per-hour pay for entry-level jobs, less than half what it had been, and forcing changes in GM's management.

Caterpillar is imposing a six-year freeze on wages and pensions on its work force, despite record profits, huge executive bonuses, and a 60 percent pay increase for its CEO. Public employee unions too are feeling the heat. In Wisconsin, they lost the right to collective bargaining, and the Democratic governor in New York is calling for cuts in public employees' pensions.

So this Labor Day is hardly celebratory for the nation's unions.

But neither was that 1882 parade. It was defiant. Banners screamed: "Labor built the Republic -- Labor shall rule it," and "To the workers should belong the wealth." The fight between labor and management was real, and often violent.

The nation was in what Mark Twain called the Gilded Age. Income disparity grew and a plutocracy ruled; family-owned companies adopted a managerial model, in which bosses distanced themselves from workers; new technology eliminated jobs. And with 10 million immigrants coming to America between 1860 and 1890, lines were forming to work for less than the $20 a day paid to skilled workers.

The Gilded Age saw the presidencies of Hayes, Arthur, Cleveland and Harrison, which labor professor Leon Wolff said exemplified "political shabbiness and intellectual bankruptcy." Congress was crowded with candidates "who sought only re-election and graft." Economically, the country was recovering from the Panic of 1873 and heading toward the 1893-97 economic collapse.

There is a temptation to compare it to today, to view our time as another Gilded Age, possibly as a way of seeing what the future might hold.

America saw the most strikes in its history in 1890. In 1892, at Andrew Carnegie's Homestead, Pa., steel plant, striking workers who had occupied the plant, engaged in a gunbattle with 300 Pinkerton security guards sent to oust them. Ten people died.

Like today, people saw virtue in neither side, not just at Homestead but in the entire ebb-and-flow relationship of labor and management. Business leaders were transmogrified in the public's mind from being "captains of industry" to "robber barons," and striking workers went from being sympathetic figures to "gangs of murderous thugs." Today, only 2 percent of citizens believe business leaders are trustworthy, and less than 30 percent believe unions are needed.

But with wages dropping and unemployment rising, unions may reappear on our radar screens. When the parades end, Messrs. King, Gerard, Roberts and Trumka need to determine how their downsized unions can make contributions that match earlier ones, such as the 40-hour workweek and the elimination of child-labor sweatshops. Maybe since unions were a major player in creating America's middle class they can find a way to save it.

Guiniven, retired last month from James Madison University, where he taught corporate communication and public issues management. He can be reached at jguini...@gmail.com.