Soul Food
Michele Marr
o7 When will justice come? When those who are not injured are as
indignant as those who are.f7 -- ancient Greek scholar
My husband recently got his full-color Robinsons-May Labor Day sale
flyer in the mail. I kept passing by the flyer on the table, glancing at
the whitened-teeth blond in her flat-front chamois leather pants and Clio
duster. The sale actually starts on Wednesday, Aug. 29. But
Robinsons-May, like so many other businesses, will be open on Labor Day.
It got me thinking. What exactly is the point of Labor Day? When did
it start? Why? And what in the world does it mean to us today other than
retail sales and one frantic last weekend of summer.
I don’t recall learning about Labor Day in school, not grammar school,
high school or college. I can’t remember it being mentioned when I was
studying the literature of the muckrakers, those writers and
photographers of the late 19th and early 20th century who crusaded to
reform the dark aspects of the industrial revolution, such as factory
work conditions and child labor. Those were the days of some truly
miserable, frequently disabling and often deadly working conditions.
Those were the days, I discovered, that gave rise to Labor Day.
The U.S. Department of Labor quotes Samuel Gompers, the founder of the
American Federation of Labor, regarding the day, “Labor Day differs in
every essential from the other holidays of the year in any country. All
other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and
battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and
power.”
What the DOL history doesn’t mention is that President Grover
Cleveland, in 1894 -- an election year -- signed a bill making Labor Day
a national holiday in hopes of appeasing the nation’s workers following a
violent and deadly American Railway Union strike.
The strike led to rioting, pillaging and the burning of railroad cars
by union and nonunion workers alike, as well as to the deaths of two
railroad workers at the hands of U.S. Deputy Marshals. It may have been
the first, but it surely wasn’t the last battle between labor and
industry in the shadow of greed and power.
The first Labor Day, celebrated in New York City on September 5, 1882
and sponsored by the Central Labor Union, might have been little more
than a public relations ploy.
But, the idea spread along with the growth of labor organizations.
Some histories credit a young Peter McGuire, paperboy, shoeshine kid,
messenger and piano maker’s (some say carpenter’s) apprentice with the
idea for the day. Others give Matthew Maguire, a machinist, and secretary
of Local 344 of the International Assn. of Machinists in Paterson, N.J.
the credit.
Few of us, at least few of us in the U.S., give our days to the sort
of hard labor the muckrakers sought to expose. But some still do. And as
commerce becomes more global the workers from whose backs we gain our
bargain-priced comforts and affordable luxuries -- luxuries and comforts
we have come to think of as necessities -- can live and work almost
anywhere.
I’m not particularly an advocate of labor unions. But, I am an
advocate for hard-working men and women anywhere. I don’t understand why
some should have to work insufferably long days for less than living
wages so that others may have clothes and furnishings and appliances they
couldn’t otherwise afford.
In so many areas of our nation, not to mention the rest of the world,
minimum wage is not a living wage, even when both a husband and a wife
are working. And it seems all the more ironic that it is most likely the
very worker who works the longest and the hardest for the least who does
not get to enjoy Labor Day as a holiday.
The Department of Labor describes Labor Day as “a creation of the
labor movement dedicated to the social and economic achievements of
American workers, a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers
have made to the strength, prosperity and well being of our country.”The
DOL gives this reason for the day “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.”
Were she here today, Marie Antoinette might say, “Let them eat cake!”I
say give them a living wage and give them the day off.
* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer and graphic designer from
Huntington Beach. She has been interested in religion and ethics for as
long as she can remember. She can be reached at o7
michele@soulfoodfiles.com.f7
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