This
is my month to stop taking things for granted, starting with today’s
holiday. Labor Day, if it means anything to most Americans, probably
means the last cookout, back-to-school shopping, and time to watch out for drunk drivers. It’s all too easy to forget that the holiday, which originated as an annual march by the Knights of Labor,
reflects both workers’ efforts to secure saner working conditions from
management and the government’s attempts to appease them while avoiding
an official celebration of May Day.
The benefits secured by the workers include the establishment of the
eight-hour work day and 40 hour work week, overtime pay, and the
ability to organize to improve working conditions—which sound awfully
nostalgic to this tech worker who’s never seen any of them.. See also
the Department of Labor’s official page on the holiday.
Incidentally, out of my 250 news feeds, I only found 26 mentions of “Labor Day”, including:
- The Monster Blog’s Labor Day resources (courtesy Fast Company)
- Boston Globe: Bitterness shadows Labor Day breakfast
- NY Times, From Now Until Then: “Coming in the thick of political battle, this Labor Day is a good day to survey what we hold in common.”
- Slate: Why do we get Labor Day off?