Happy LABOR day

[jeezifonly]

Proud union member here, who has sat on both Mgmt and Labor sides of different negotiating tables over the years.

Today is not to celebrate the “entrepreneurs”

Today is not the day to say thanks to “investors” or “shareholders”

Today is to honor the largely invisible workforce of laborers, mostly paid by the hour, to do the jobs that shareholders and entrepreneurs simply couldn’t handle 40hrs/wk.

LABOR is the backbone of our economy. From nursing, to road repair, from electricians to food processors and baggage handlers. Transportation, manufacturing, sanitation, entertainment, retail, and hospitality are all reliant upon workers willing to work for wages rather than glory, often in physically exhausting jobs, some with significant personal risk to health and longevity. 
To all the workers: Huzzah!

[TumYum]

1 minute ago, jeezifonly said:

Proud union member here, who has sat on both Mgmt and Labor sides of different negotiating tables over the years.

Today is not to celebrate the “entrepreneurs”

Today is not the day to say thanks to “investors” or “shareholders”

Today is to honor the largely invisible workforce of laborers, mostly paid by the hour, to do the jobs that shareholders and entrepreneurs simply couldn’t handle 40hrs/wk.

LABOR is the backbone of our economy. From nursing, to road repair, from electricians to food processors and baggage handlers. Transportation, manufacturing, sanitation, entertainment, retail, and hospitality are all reliant upon workers willing to work for wages rather than glory, often in physically exhausting jobs, some with significant personal risk to health and longevity. 
To all the workers: Huzzah!

Proud Union member here - when I compare my Union job to people doing the same job as I do without a Union contract I am reminded every single day that not only am I treated like a valuable human being in the workplace.... I actually do a better job because I have a Union contract1

Solidarity.... forever.

[Luv2play]

The socialists celebrate labour Day on May first. I often wonder why the capitalist countries chose the first weekend in September. And which came first. 

I' m too lazy to look it up. If anyone has a quick as answer, let us know 

[BSR]

4 hours ago, Luv2play said:

The socialists celebrate labour Day on May first. I often wonder why the capitalist countries chose the first weekend in September. And which came first. 

I' m too lazy to look it up. If anyone has a quick as answer, let us know 

According to Wiki, ~80 nations, socialist or not, celebrate Workers Day on May 1.  The US & Canada celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday in September.  International Workers Day is set on May 1 in honor of the American Federation of Labor convention which on May 1, 1885, passed a resolution calling for an 8-hour workday.  You can read the Wiki article on Labor Day for the origins of the first Monday in September as the date for Labor Day.

Edited September 7, 2021 by BSR
Typo

[+ José Soplanucas]

I celebrate on May 1st.

[mike carey]

Labour Day in Australia is a public holiday on dates which vary between states and territories. It is the first Monday in October in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and South Australia. In Victoria and Tasmania, it is the second Monday in March (though the latter calls it Eight Hours Day). In Western Australia, Labour Day is the first Monday in March. In Queensland and the Northern Territory, Labour Day occurs on the first Monday in May (though the latter calls it May Day). It is on the fourth Monday of March in the territory of Christmas Island.

The first march for an eight-hour day by the labour movement occurred in Melbourne on 21 April 1856. On this day stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight-hour day. Their direct action protest was a success, and they are noted as being among the first organised workers in the world to achieve an 8-hour day, with no loss of pay.

That's from a Wiki article. Like railway gauges, Australian states don't agree on dates for public holidays. A paid public holiday was proclaimed in the colony of Victoria in 1879.

[Guest]

I was also a union member until my retirement. I hate to think how working conditions would have been without the union.

[marylander1940]

Is time for us to celebrate Labor Day May 1st like the rest of the world?

International Workers' Day - Wikipedia

On 9/7/2021 at 2:08 AM, Unicorn said:

I was also a union member until my retirement. I hate to think how working conditions would have been without the union.

Bingo!

Unfortunately so many low income Americans deny that fact..

[+ tassojunior]

On 9/6/2021 at 4:52 PM, Luv2play said:

The socialists celebrate labour Day on May first. I often wonder why the capitalist countries chose the first weekend in September. And which came first. 

I' m too lazy to look it up. If anyone has a quick as answer, let us know 

May 1 commemorates the Haymarket/massacre/riot/whatever in Chicago by mostly German immigrants where a thrown bomb at a subsequent May 4, 1886  rally killed 7 police who were attacking and shooting Marxist strikers leading to 7 strikers probably wrongly being sentenced to death. It rapidly became international labor day across the world. Grover Cleveland was a conservative Democratic president and didn't want US Labor Day commemorating Haymarket or associated with socialism/communism so he got a Sept.1 one for the US. 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by tassojunior

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

September was chosen instead of May because the US had a history of far left protests on May Day, including bombings.  May Day had become too political.  To try to separate the US Labor reform movement from the socialists and far left, several states and municipalities chose September.  Congress chose to recognize the contributions of Labor on the September date instead of May.

Edited September 10, 2021 by Vegas_nw1982