Remembering 'Labor Union' Day; how will you celebrate it?

[Omaha Steve]

For only the second time in the last 12 years, I will be marching with my union in the Labor Day Parade tomorrow. I had to work that day up until 3 years ago. Last year we were to broke as a local to spend the $.

OS

http://www.examiner.com/x-19719-Southern-Baptist-Examiner~y2009m9d6-Remembering-Labor-Union-Day-how-will-you-celebrate-it

September 6, 2:21 PMSouthern Baptist ExaminerMarty Duren

What is Labor Day?

If you are like me and somehow missed Holidays 101 in high school, perhaps you thought, as I did, that Labor Day was a celebration of our labors and a day's respite from them. Or perhaps it was the annual method of determining when to wear white or one more opportunity for the last summer picnic. Or, with the Labor Day Sale, another opportunity for corporate America to add to the bottom line.



Welcome to the League of the Misinformed. This month's meeting is now in session. You've missed the Jimmy Hoffa connection.

The "labor" in Labor Day refers to the Labor Union movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The holiday was never called "Labor Union Day," since "union" would have been understood from the context of the times, but was a yearly celebration of the advances of the labor movement. A local labor leader (either Peter McGuire returning from a labor celebration in Canada in 1872 or Matthew Maguire serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York) planned a similar celebration in New York. According to Wikipedia, politics then took over:

The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882, in New York City. In the aftermath of the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the US Military and US Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with Labor as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. Cleveland was also concerned that aligning a US labor holiday with existing international May Day celebrations could stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair. All 50 U. S. States have made Labor Day a state holiday.

From the US Department of Labor website:

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.

So, what do you plan to do for Labor Day? Catch a Labor Day Sale? Go to a game? Have a cookout? Rest? Work around the house? Call your union rep?

[tazkcmo]

1. work n/t

[Earth Bound Misfit]

2. Working.

**sigh**

[femmocrat]

3. I'm off, but I'm doing school work.

This is my last day off until Thanksgiving!

[peacebuzzard]

4. day off and time to regroup & recharge for our big union election coming up

I am working this week on the campaign at the "New Delta" airlines. For the third time the Delta flight attendants will have a shot at finally going union with the merger of the flight attendant labor group. The "New Delta " is merging with our union heavy old red tail Northwest.

Wish us luck!!!!

[Craftsman]

5. I spent it laboring

I am building a picket fence around my house.