Labor Day

I greatly enjoyed my day off yesterday, although I actually did do some work and was even at the office for a brief period. But I can’t help but marvel at the irony of so many people enjoying a day in honor of the labor movement, especially given the sentiment towards unions these days. Strangely I have heard no business, who routinely denounce labor unions and how terrible they are, decrying this day and demanding that it be taken away. Nor have I heard the same from regular people who see no use for labor unions.

Even if we are just to see it as a nice remembrance of when unions were needed would be to recognize that capitalism has some serious issues, the business does not always do the right thing, that unions were needed and useful (once upon a time) and that workers need to be protected. Even that recognition I think would be impossible for some conservatives to agree to or even to recognize.

Now I will admit my biases here. I come from a pro-union family, although I think I am the only member of my family from the last two generations to actually belong to a union, and was one of the union reps the Harvard University Clerical and Technical Workers Union when I was at Harvard. The United Methodist Church also recognizes and supports the employees’ right to organize and bargain collectively.

But do you know how Labor Day came into existence? Here is a brief story:
The first labor day was celebrated in New York in 1882 after labor organizer Peter McGuire witnessed a celebration in Canada, which had passed the Trade Union Act which legalized and protected union activity in Canada in 1872. But the US did not recognize the celebration until 1894, when President Cleveland pushed for legislation recognizing the day in order to appease the labor movement. This was not done out of the goodness of his heart, but instead to try and quell any upheavals after he ordered the US Marshall’s to interview in a strike at the Pullman Palace Car Company (manufacturer of the Pullman railway car). Their strike, caused as a result of cuts in pay due to a down turned economy (sound familiar), resulted in 125,000 railway workers refusing to handle any Pullman cars. Under the guise of saying the strike interfered with the delivery of the mail, President Cleveland ordered the US Marshalls, along with 12,000 members of the Army, to stop the strike. In the end, 13 strikers were killed, when they were fired upon, and 57 were wounded. Putting labor at the top of his agenda, President Cleveland pushed through legislation creating the holiday just six days after the end of the strike, and was unanimously approved by Congress. September was chosen not only because that was when Canada celebrated, but more importantly to keep it away from May 1 which is the international date to celebrate labor movements.