5 Thoughts On Labor Day
Today is Labor Day in the United States and as a result I have the day off from work (ironically, I coded all day - except on my boat instead of in the office!). Labor Day has been a federal holiday since 1894, and is supposed to celebrate the American labor movement[1]. Here are a few quick thoughts I have.
1. Summer Is Over
Labor Day to me has always been synonymous with the end of summer and the start of school (although my school always started a week or so before Labor Day). The end of summer is always sad news in my book. Summer is full of being outside, having fun, and taking vacations. Fall is now around the corner, and as they say Winter is Coming.
2. The Hardest Workers Are At Work Today
While I get to lounge around on my boat all day, lots of hard working people are doing just that - working hard at their jobs. The marina staff was here helping people move their boats, the security guard was monitoring the gates, a few different people prepared both my lunch and dinner, and these are just the people I interacted with or observed directly! I understand logistically why it's impractical for the entire country to shut down, but it still seems off that large swaths of people, often in less well paid jobs, have to work today.
3. Millions Are Still Unemployed
Things are going relatively well economically these days. Unemployment is down to 6.2%[2] and we finally have as many jobs as we did before Lehman Brothers went under and crashed the global economy. But don't be fooled - there is still a lot of economic suffering going on. Given the population growth we've experienced over the past 6 years, we should have about 7 million more jobs than we currently do[3]. For the unemployed and their families, there is still an ongoing economic crisis. Our leaders need to do more to address this issue.
4. Unions Are Dying
Today is supposed to be a celebration of unions and the labor movement in general. However, there has been a massive structural realignment over the last half century, and unions are on the decline. One chart says it all[4]:
At what point do we change the definition of Labor Day to celebrate workers instead of unions? Maybe this is already happened defacto, but when will this happen dejure?
5. We Should Celebrate Labor Day On May 1st
On May 1st, 1886 as many as half a million workers went on strike across the country demanding an 8 hour work day. In Chicago, police brutality ensued, and a few workers were killed. A few days later the workers were back rallying again but were bombed by anarchists in what came to be known as the Haymarket affair. This event is largely credited with creating the modern day Labor movement, and as a result today over 80 countries celebrate 'Labor Day' on May 1st, where it is usually called International Worker's Day. But we obviously don't celebrate Labor Day on May 1st, despite the origins for this day happening right here. Afraid of socialists and anarchists and internationalism in general, but outraged at the brutality of oppressed workers, the US decided split the baby - by celebrating Labor Day, but not on the same day as every other country. But today is a very different time, and there is no need to be afraid of things like communism, which was vanquished long ago. We should join with the rest of the world, and celebrate Labor Day on May 1st[5]!
1. Background info about Labor Day is taken directly from the Labor Day page on Wikipedia ↩
2. BLS data for July 2014 ↩
3. [Article from CNN] analyzing the number of jobs in the economy before and after the recession(http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/06/investing/may-jobs-report/) ↩
4. Chart taken from Labor Unions in the United States page on Wikipedia ↩
5. It would be nice if we we also found a way to keep the first monday of September as a holiday - it's really awesome! ↩