HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND AMERICA
Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don’t ever apologize for anything.
Harry S. Truman
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Well we are already here. Our first Monday in the month of September. End of summer, start of football season or is it more than that?
WHEN WAS THE FIRST LABOR DAY?
1882 on September 5th in New York City organized by Peter J. McGuire (carpenter) as a march/parade from City Hall to Union Square then on to Reservoir Park for a picnic. The event included 10,000 workers and their families.
WHEN WAS LABOR DAY FORMALLY ESTABLISHED?
1894
WHAT MADE IT OFFICIAL?
Labor Day became official based on the events surrounding the PULLMAN STRIKE of 1894 during Grover Cleveland’s administration (The 22nd and the 24th President of the United States, which makes him the only president to have been elected to office twice but not in back to back presidential terms. He is also noted for being the only Democrat elected to office during the lengthy reign of a Republican majority between 1860 to 1912. Cleveland was a conservative in that he was not an advocate for inflation, subsidies for businesses, farmers or even veterans, pricey tariffs, or imperialism ).
WHAT WAS THE PULLMAN STRIKE?
The Pullman Strike was a political battle between the railroads and the labor unions which started in Pullman Illinois. A company by the name of the Pullman Palace Car Co. suffered a strike of three thousand of its employees because of drastic reductions in wages. You have to understand that rail cars were the most popular mode of travel back then so traffic flow was adversely effected. Anything West of Chicago did not move. Eugene Debs was the head of the American Railway Union that represented approximately 250,000 workers in 27 states. President Cleveland sent federal troops and marshals to shut down striking because of its ill effects on the nation. From a legal standpoint President Cleveland said it was affecting the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to deliver mail. He was thereby justified in sending troops. 13 union workers were killed and fifty seven were injured. Six thousand members of the union were involved and caused about $350,000.00 worth of damage (nearly nine million today).
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LABOR DAY?
When it was first established nationally, a parade was to take place following a festival to honor, encourage and celebrate the American spirit of trade and labor organizations. Some question the political cleansing attempt on the part of President Cleveland given that it was passed six days after the Pullman strike ended and many of his cabinet members did not believe the president had the right to unleash 12,000 army troops and marshals to the scene.
WHAT IS LABOR SUNDAY?
Labor Sunday is the Sunday before Labor Day. It was established in 1909 to highlight the spiritual and educational elements of Labor Day as it relates to the Bible.
WHAT IS THIS OTHER LABOR DAY – MAY 1ST?
This is an international holiday recognized and celebrated by about eighty countries. It is also known as the International Workers’ Day or May Day. It focuses on labor unions specifically. It marks the 1886 Haymarket Massacre of Chicago on May 4th. It started out as a rally for striking workers who were pushing for an eight hour work day. Someone threw a bomb at police while police were trying to break up the rally. Police retaliated with gunfire. Eight officers were killed. The majority were killed by “friendly fire”. To this day it is unknown how many civilians were killed. Eight men were tried. Four were convicted and executed and one man committed suicide in prison. Please take special note that the prosecution was convinced that none of the eight defendants were involved in throwing the bomb.
We so often get caught up in thinking the era we live in is the most volatile, the most corrupt as every generation wishes for the “old days” when matters were simpler, people were kinder, and there was a niceness in the air. Let this be a lesson and a strong reminder to all of us that corruption and suspicion of corruption go back long before any one of us was born. There is much more to many of these stories, but we don’t want to make the blog an entire American history lesson. Illegal searches were conducted and freedom of speech was squashed during this time.
Perhaps we need to look a little more carefully at Labor Day and its true meaning from all perspectives. Some of us recall May Day when we were children, but that is a holiday that has gone by the way side for the most part in this country.
I HEAR GOOD & BAD THINGS ABOUT UNIONS:
Many people believe unions to be useless today. Many people take for granted the working conditions they have today and are unaware that those limited hours, pay, vacation time, sick time, and other benefits were as a result of labor unions fighting and its members dying for improved working conditions. Nothing is a given in this world unless you understand its history and continue to demand that it remain on the “books”. Some form of American unions have been around since the start of this country.
WHATS THE BIG DEAL ABOUT CHILD LABOR LAWS?
Unions were instrumental in establishing child labor laws. Most of us are too young to know of a time when children as young as three years of age were put to work for twelve hour days, no school, and were working in conditions that most adults could not survive in. The Industrial Revolution sparked the need for even more children working in small, tight, dangerous spaces that adults could not reach because of their size. Children worked in mines, around dangerous machinery, chimneys, prostitution and more. Because of the unbearable hours, malnutrition, no health care, children would sometimes fall asleep on the job. Even though they were working side by side with their parents and siblings, it was not unusual for a shop boss or supervisor to beat the child. The parents could not fight back because it would mean the loss of jobs for the entire family. Essentially it was about two steps higher than slavery minus the racism. This was nearly every company across the board. So it wasn’t as if you could argue unfair treatment, quit and get another job with a sanely operated company.
To give you an idea of how barbaric our society was back then, and by we I mean every continent on the planet, it was a big milestone when Britain came through as the first nation to pass a law in favor of children. Its laughable now, but then it was a huge relief to many families and children. It fell under the title of FACTORY ACTS in the early 1900′s. Children under the age of 9 were not allowed to work at all. Chidren between the ages of 10 and 17 were limited to a twelve hour work day, which indicates they were working sixteen or more hours per day prior to the law. We still have sweat shops and worse still today. The poorer the country the fewer child labor restrictions there are.
WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN THE U.S.A.?
1.7 million children UNDER THE AGE OF 15 were said to be working in 1900 in the U.S.A. in the fields of industry. By 1910 that number had climbed to 2 million. Labor unions were already up and running, fighting and battling for rights for everyone. The issue was that as with any movement, the extremists are the gutsiest of all, but with that extremists mentality comes a number of harsh negatives. The union leaders in the 1700′s and 1800′s and beyond were known to be violent, unruly, coercive, and intimidating to co-workers and political officials. Many would argue that if they weren’t, nothing would have been accomplished with those in power in America. It was only through fear that politicians were motivated to rein in the questionable employment practices of large company owners and executives. Opposition to unions, even today, allege that unions are socialistic and no longer necessary. In fact many would argue that we have swung too far in over compensating for our history and now we are dealing with ungrateful, selfish, nondedicated workers who have a sense of entitlement and take advantage of the system. WHERE DO YOU STAND ON THIS ISSUE?
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? JOIN OUR DISCUSSION
Always remember humans are charged with keeping one another in check. It doesn’t matter if you are the President of the United States, a CEO of a major corporation, a clerk at a retail store or you are out of work on disability. Honesty and integrity should be at the top of every man and woman’s list because no one is any more important or any less valuable than the other. Every single one of us impacts, shapes and influences our employers, family, friends, children, community, the nation and the world. We are each representatives of this list. We have an obligation to be the best we can be to our employers and to the people who fought and still fight for the luxuries we enjoy today.
HAPPY LABOR DAY!
EMPLOYERS NEEDING TO FILL JOB ORDERS
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