Before you fire up the grill this Labor Day or check out the discounts at the stores, how about taking a moment to consider the real meaning of the day?<\/p>\n

Labor Day. The words used to mean something.<\/p>\n

The words used to have muscle and sweat behind them. They used to honor the labor of workers who built the industrial might of this country.\u00a0 They defined a day set aside to give workers a well-earned day off but also to celebrate how workers risked their livelihoods (and sometimes their lives) to fight for the right to organize, for decent wages, reasonable hours, and safe working conditions. The concept was born out of the desire to acknowledge the struggle for a more economically and socially just society.<\/p>\n

Labor Day should be the one day in the year when we recall how workplace reforms we now take for granted came about.\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t we acknowledge on this day how it was organized labor\u2014not the goodwill nor social conscience of employers \u2014that forced an end to child labor, secured health and retirement benefits, and demanded compensation for those injured on the job?<\/p>\n

How many of us think about those achievements this Labor Day?\u00a0 In truth, the name is meaningless.\u00a0 Labor Day is a joke. So why not drop the pretense and find a new moniker, like Bargain Day or End of Summer Day?\u00a0 How about Barbeque Day or Must I Go Back to School Day?<\/p>\n

Before we abandon the word labor<\/i> altogether let\u2019s recall some history<\/b><\/p>\n

Labor Day as originally conceived was the brainchild of organized labor. The historical record is uncertain about who came up with the idea first. Still, it\u2019s clear that the concept of a workingmen\u2019s holiday was proposed either by Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, or Matthew Maguire, a machinist and later secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Whichever of the two men proposed the idea, New York\u2019s Central Labor Union ran with it, and the first labor day parade was celebrated in New York City on September 5, 1882. \u00a0\u00a0At the time, the Central Labor Union urged other labor organizations to follow its lead in highlighting the contributions of working people. And the idea caught on. By 1885 with the rapid growth of labor unions, the holiday spread across the industrial core of the country. In 1887 Oregon became the first state to legalize the holiday.<\/p>\n

Federalization of the holiday was born out of violence that erupted in 1894 when railway workers in Illinois went on strike to protest wage cuts.\u00a0 Two strikers were killed when President Grover Cleveland sent in 12,000 federal troops to quell what became known as the Pullman Strike.\u00a0 Public opinion ran hot against Cleveland\u2019s actions.\u00a0 In order to appease workers and hoping to gain their votes (he lost his re-election bid anyway), Cleveland declared Labor Day, as we now know it, a national holiday.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more than history to think about this Labor Day<\/b><\/p>\n

We should also take time this holiday to take stock of where workers and the middle class stand today.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the balance sheet looks none too pretty (unless, of course, you\u2019re a member of the 1% crowd).\u00a0 Here are some astounding numbers you might want to think about while you’re waiting for the grill to fire up:<\/p>\n

\n
• \n
  \u00a0\u00a0Workers’ salaries are at the lowest percentage of G.D.P. since 1929, which amounts to 42.6 percent, the lowest since historical data has been kept. \u00a0American corporations, on the\u00a0other side, are more profitable than ever.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
• Incomes of the bottom 90% of Americans grew on average by about $59 in the last 40 years, while incomes of the top 10% of Americans rose on average by $116,071.<\/li>\n
• The increase in the real value of the minimum wage since 1990 is 21%, while the increase in the cost of living since 1990 is 67%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Those depressing (and depressed) numbers are a\u00a0reflection of a struggling and diminished middle class.\u00a0 But don\u2019t be fooled by the self-serving rhetoric of the conservative\/business class.\u00a0 This state of affairs\u2014this diminishment of the American Dream\u2014is not about invisible, inevitable market forces. Rather, there is a direct correlation between the union-busting politics that gained ground in the 1980s\u2014and are pursued with even greater zealotry today\u2014and the decline of middle-class wages and benefits.<\/p>\n

  Jared Bernstein, economist and senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, explains:<\/p>\n

  \u00a0The fact is that union density is much more a national policy decision than an act of nature. Unions are an institution that an advanced economy can or\u00a0cannot decide to foster or suppress.\u00a0More so than other advanced nations,\u00a0we have taken the suppression route in recent decades.\u00a0And that\u2019s one of the\u00a0reasons why American working families, despite their relatively high\u00a0productivity levels, benefit significantly less from the fruits of their labor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

  Bernstein concludes:<\/p>\n

  There\u2019s no question that de-unionization is related to the decline in job quality and increase in inequality faced by many in today\u2019s workforce.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

  Happy Labor Day, indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Before you fire up the grill this Labor Day or check out the discounts at the stores, how about taking a moment to consider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":25839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[994,93,45,172,908],"tags":[2049,1217,1715],"yoast_head":"\n