Happy Labor Day!
I’ll celebrate the way I usually do … working, and damned glad I have a job. Thanks to the sound and aggressive management of the company I work for, with an owner/publisher who made the tough choices and did what he had to do to keep us going. The unions helped to the extent that the unions got out of the way and let him do it. It has been a difficult decade. I voted with majorities in my union to set aside seniority and to forego raises for two years. Most of the people I used to share the halls and desk space with are doing other things now. The news staff is half the size it was 10 years ago, the newsroom spacious where it once was cramped. The backshop is gone. All the guys in overalls and box-shaped folded newspaper hats who ran the presses, gone, the pressroom dark. The paper is printed offsite, sharing cheaper space with other newspapers on better presses than we could afford inhouse. Watch and learn, American journalism. It is still printed, and Boston is still a two-newspaper town.
I’ll thank the union I belong to and the nation’s labor laws for the holiday pay I’ll earn today and the OT I take home some weeks, but that’s about it. The other big bennie, job security, was always illusory. Jobs and wages don’t grow on trees.
Neither do the businesses and industries in which jobs and wages become available. Unions did a lot to improve working conditions in this country over the past 150 years or so, but they also, due to a lack of reality awareness, obstinance, incompetence and greed, compromised the competitiveness of many of the businesses and industries that fed them.
Like many American holidays … Memorial Day, for example … this one is observed mainly as a three-day weekend devoted to barbecues, largely divorced from its meaning and history. Not such a bad thing in this case. Turns out Labor Day isn’t an American holiday after all. Reportedly Canadian in origin, and much like the bacon, while tasty, not a real Labor Day, anyway. Pretty sordid political history. Grover Cleveland pushed it through in 1894 as a sop to angry union mobs, to avert more violence after the Pullman strike. Cleveland and Congress reportedly avoided May Day … the internationally recognized Commie holiday that was already established, even if communism wasn’t … to avoid association with the Haymarket Affair.
The Canadians spell it with a “u” … Labour Day … of course. Given the history, we probably should throw in a “u,” too. For bogus. I have no respect for bogus holidays. I’ll take the OT, though.
Labor Day history links: Wikipedia, History.com, U.S. Department of Labor, Socyberty
A gamut of Labor Day reading:
Labor Day: A Novel Joyce Maynard. This is set on Labor Day weekend but apparently otherwise has nothing to do with labor, much like the holiday. Well regarded novelist.
A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present Howard Zinn. American lefty tour de force.
Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do Studs Terkel
Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs John Bowe
To Toil the Livelong Day: America’s Women at Work, 1780-1980 Carol Groneman
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America David von Drehle
The Jungle Upton Sinclair
The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History Aaron Brenner
Major Problems in the History of American Workers: Documents and Essays Eileen Boris
Major Problems in American Business History: Documents and Essays Regina Lee Blaszczyk
American Workers, American Unions: The Twentieth Century Robert H. Zieger
Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure Nan Enstad
Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor Russell Freedman
A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery E. Benjamin Skinner. Think you’ve got it bad? Reportedly somewhat politicized view of how the other half toils.
Ten Thousand Working Days Robert Schrank, sociologist of work.
Our Own Time: A History of American Labor and the Working Day Philip S. Foner
America’s Forgotten Holiday: May Day and Nationalism, 1867-1960 Donna Haverty-Stacke
Kellogg’s Six-Hour Day Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt. Never heard of this, sounds interesting.
The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value Frederick F. Reichheld
The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History Patrick Allitt
A Conservative History of the American Left Daniel J. Flynn
Wives, Mothers, and the Red Menace: Conservative Women and the Crusade Against Communism Mary C. Brennan
Right Time, Right Place: Coming of Age with William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement Richard Brookhiser
The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution: 1980-1989 Stephen F. Hayward
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning Jonah Goldberg
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto Mark Levin
The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith
On The Wealth of Nations: Books That Changed the World P.J. O’Rourke
The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx
Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics P.J. O’Rourke
Republican Party Reptile: The Confessions, Adventures, Essays, and (Other) Outrages of… P.J. O’Rourke
… and as long as we’re having fun with P.J. O’Rourke and addressing issues realted to the American left, Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People …
American Working-Class Literature: An Anthology Nicholas Coles
Labor Days: An Anthology of Fiction About Work David Gates
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
No doubt a lot missing, left and right. Your suggestions in comments or via contact, I’ll add.
In other business, different but not entirely unrelated, here’s Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake* bitterly denouncing the betrayal of liberal purity by lefty interest groups and the White House with the underthebusification of Van Jones and other high crimes. Like much lefty disillusionment these days, it’s a fun read.
* What the heck is a FireDogLake, anyway? Sounds wet and smelly.
Topics: America, Canada, capitalism, history
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:36 am on Monday, September 7, 2009
4 Responses to “Happy Labor Day!”
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September 7th, 2009 at 8:48 am
[...] Jules has some reflection on the holiday. [...]
September 7th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Thank you, Jules!
I am enjoying your blog more each day. It is helping with my convalescence.
September 7th, 2009 at 9:11 am
My pleasure, SL. Thank you for reading, and get well soon!
September 7th, 2009 at 9:34 am
[...] Jules Crittenden says, “I’ll celebrate the way I usually do … working, and damned glad I have a job.” [...]