Good morning my fellow work-a-holics! Today is our day, a day devoted to the American worker. Or is it? Just how, and why did this day come to be? The then, president Cleveland signed Labor Day into law, a day to be celebrated on the first Monday in September. There is no doubt as to why the holiday was created; to celebrate the American worker, and the labor unions. The first parades were parades of union members, showing their solidarity. There is nothing wrong with that, labor unions have done a lot of good in this country, they have, albeit in a chaotic and messy way, spearheaded the five day / 40 hour workweek. Unions effectively killed the 12 hour day / seven days a week work week; thank goodness. Unions have done a lot for this country: for a pretty neat history lesson of this holiday, click here.
But I digress; today’s post is simply an acknowledgement of the contributions of labor unions. Yes; they have contributed greatly to this great land. Recently though, it seams unions, generally speaking, think only of themselves – and often the regular line worker pays the price. Currently, union membership is the lowest it’s been in 70 years, coming in at just over 14.3 million, roughly 11% of the workforce. In their heydays, union membership topped out at roughly 35% of the workforce.
In what I find a comical sense of irony, most unions membership is now in the public sector – c’mon…that’s just funny! Our government couldn’t get out if its own way…but just try to fire a non-productive teacher or government employee.
The bosslady had wanted me to clean the garage today – but I think I’ll celebrate our holiday, the working mans holiday today. I’ll clean the garage tomorrow, yeah, that’s it, I’ll do it tomorrow.
Have a wonderful day, I hope your grilling isn’t too charred.
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