We just celebrated another Labor- Day holiday, and as a Caribbean person, I enjoyed the annual carnival…I am however making a call for future Labor-Days to include some emphases on the workers’ achievements and their on-going struggles
I believe that Labor Day-Monday, may be because it is a public holiday, may be because it is becoming better known for the West Indian Labor Day carnival in Brooklyn, may be because it now involves the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association’s Opens; and may be because it marks the unofficial end of summer is losing its original significance of honoring the American WORKER.
–{please note that I am not calling for an abolition of socio- cultural emphases and events before and after Labor Day, after all–I am simply calling for a hybrid or mixture of the various emphases and practices that have taken over the Labor Day weekend and Holiday-Monday, with its original purpose of giving recognition to the struggles and achievements of the American worker.}
Besides those variables outlined above, America’s Labor Day association with workers’ struggles might have been misplaced, since European countries and several non-American States like Caribbean countries normally celebrate their workers and their Trade-Union representatives on May first–A.K.A.(May Day or Labor Day).
One can only blame the Public- Relations’ machinery and apparatus of the American Trade- Union Movement for allowing that slippage to take place, and in so doing recommend that the Movement’s Leaders come up with pre-and post-Labor Day packages in order to arrest and address the occurrence.
I call it packages, because there continues to be pervasive and well publicized Political, Trade- Union, and Interest-Groups’ advocacies and representations on behalf of America’s workers.
Those advocacies and representations include equal pay and improved conditions of work for female-workers; increased hourly pay for fast food workers; the award of livable wages along with more reasonable working hours, especially to entry-level workers; and pauses to advantages that are being taken of undocumented personnel.
Then there is the historical contributions that have been made to agitations, protests and marches for workers’ and human rights–Those traditional Trade- Union Leaders and Workers’ representatives should be given greater publicity and recognition.
In this country, the direct affiliation of Trade-Unions, as well as the Latter’s contributions of money and material-assistance to identified Political-Parties are also well acknowledged and documented, and they should be more effectively distributed.
In summary, all that I am clamoring for, is inclusions from America’s Labor-Leaders that would help to remind about the original purpose and significance of Labor Day.
REASONS
I make the appeals to America’s Trade-Union Leaders and Representatives to work to win back recognition of the true reasons and purposes for early September’s Labor Day, because the public has to be consistently reminded that the labor movement gave us much to be thankful for, such as child labor laws, the eight-hour workday, workplace safety standards, weekends without work, paid vacation, unemployment insurance, overtime pay, employer healthcare, military leave and wrongful termination laws.
The Universal struggles and battles for increased wages and improved working conditions for the working masses have to continue, because according to the World Bank, more than 2.8 billion people around the world, live on less than $2 a day.
That earning reality could easily be misplaced in the United States, since in many cases, the average person living below the poverty line in the U.S. today has (for example) a phone, a car, a TV, indoor plumbing,
In conclusion, the Nation’s Labor Leaders and Representatives cannot allow workers and their dependents to celebrate Labor-Day as if we have overcome, as if all of our struggles are over, and therefore we could indulge in never-.ending celebrations.
In the first place, the Nation’s Labor-Leaders and Representatives have to become visible around Labor Day, and educate adults and children in particular about the origins and significance of September’s Labor Day Monday.
** As a Blogger puts it,”It is the duty of the Trade-Union Leaders to set the record straight, and to give Trade Unions the credit that are due to them, especially about the benefits that workers are enjoying today”.
************
In Labor Day celebrations
Let us remember
Trade Unions along with their Leaders
and loyal members.
They made workplaces better by
negotiating with employers on behalf of workers.
We’ll still party on the Parkway,
But remember it’s the Laborers’ holiday.
and then 