Celebrating Labor Day
Is this really the face of evil in America today?
Starting this afternoon, Human Race Horses is on vacation in Clayton, Georgia for the long Labor Day weekend. I’ll be back on Tuesday as I will heading to South Florida for a work assignment and to spend some time at ERE Expo. I will be live blogging from there with the hashtag #ere09.
For your Labor Day weekend reading pleasure, here is a brief history of the Labor Day holiday in America and a list of 17 major issues that labor unions are concerned about this year. I have included links for the various union sites related to these topics. Feel free to take a look and draw your own conclusions about the issues as they are presented!
The History of Labor Day
(Source: Dept. of Labor web site)
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
Founder of Labor Day
More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.
Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”
But Peter McGuire’s place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.
A Nationwide Holiday
The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations” of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.
The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.
The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.
Labor Day 2009
Here is a list of things that are hot topics on Labor Day 2009
- Company CEOs
- Walmart and American values
- Health care reform
- the creation of green jobs
- the role of CVS Caremark in our communities
- the rights of warehouse workers in southern California
- the rights of workers at Walmart
- Pharmacy workers and patients
- Educating health plan managers and trustees about CVS Caremark
- working conditions for hotel workers
- Preventing truck drivers from becoming sharecroppers on wheels
- Standing up to Cintas and working for Uniform Justice
- Executive pay and compensation
- Paying the price at Walmart
- Stewardship of capital and investments in corporations
- Sweatshops and child labor
- Gen Y and millenials in the workforce
- the Employee Free Choice Act
Related articles by Zemanta
- US Carpenters’ Union Fires 3 in NY Corruption Case (abcnews.go.com)
- Interesting twist or nothing meaningful? (brvanlanen.wordpress.com)
- Gadling’s Guide to Labor Day 2009 (gadling.com)
- Statement from Mercury Marine (brvanlanen.wordpress.com)
- Why 2nd vote was too little too late (brvanlanen.wordpress.com)
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