If today means more to you than packing away your white shorts and shoes, you’re probably a pro-union type who supports raising the minimum wage. But if you’re like most Americans, it’s just another amorphous, somehow patriotic Monday holiday on which to cook out, drink beer, and if you’re like my neighbors last night, inexplicably shoot off fireworks.
I’m not sure how Labor Day got hijacked into being another red, white, and blue affair. Yet the Labor Day sale signs in store windows feature stars and stripes along with promises of savings.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s website tells it straight. The holiday is in recognition of the power of worker collectives, and what they accomplish when they band together and refuse to be abused by, wait for it…job creators.
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country…
The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was 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…
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.
Or to put it another way, “Workers unite!” And everybody else, quit with the faux patriotic imagery already.
