Laboring on Labor Day

How did you spend the Labor Day holiday? Did you have the day off, or were you among those who labored on Labor Day?

My husband and I, who are both employed, had the day off. Because cooking is labor to me, and because there were only the two of us here to celebrate, we decided to go out to eat. Our favorite restaurant was closed to give its employees the day off. This particular restaurant closes for several federal and religious holidays and always gives its customers plenty of notice. So we went to our second favorite, part of a local barbecue chain. It was doing a brisk business.

On our way to the restaurant, we found ourselves behind a garbage truck on a narrow road with little opportunity for safe passing. Watching the truck stop at several houses along the route, I remembered that our trash hauler had left a message telling us that because of the holiday, they would be picking up a day later in the week. This also is routine for our service provider.

We also met several mail delivery vehicles and assumed that priority mail took precedence over the holiday.

Many people work on holidays. Some hourly workers receive time and a half pay for their efforts. Some may be given a day off with pay at another time. Whatever the circumstances, many workers do not get to participate in this and other holidays. According to a Bloomberg survey in 2015, nearly 40 percent of employers required some to “labor” on Labor Day. Somehow, not having this day off seems like more of a slap in the face to U.S. workers than, maybe, missing Columbus Day, which, I understand, is fraught with controversy.

Labor Day is a creation of the labor movement and unions. The very first recorded Labor Day celebration took place on September 5, 1882, in lower Manhattan, in accordance with plans of the Central Labor Union. Following a parade led by 200 marchers from the Jewelers Union of Newark Two, nearly 25,000 union members and their families filled Reservoir Park, the parade’s termination point.

The Pew Research Center has reported that although more than 150 million Americans are part of the U.S. workforce, the share who are union members has fallen by about half over the last three decades. “Union membership peaked in 1954 at nearly 35 percent of all U.S. wage and salary workers, but in 2015, the unionization rate was just 11.1 percent. However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the actual number of union members has risen in recent years, from 14.4 million in 2012 to 14.8 million last year.

“There is broad support for the right of workers to unionize across a range of occupations. Among six industry categories we asked about in spring 2015, about eight in-ten Americans (82 percent) said manufacturing and factory workers should have that right. Big majorities backed the rights of transit workers, police officers, and public school teachers to do the same. About six-in-ten (62 percent) said fast-food workers should be able to unionize, while 35 percent opposed that.”

While unions have taken it on the chin for many things, including contributing to the woes of U.S. automakers and jobs moving overseas, American workers have many things to thank them for, including Labor Day. Regardless of how unions fare, the holiday likely is here to stay.