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September 5, 2010

Our View: Today we honor labor

The Free Press

— Today is the last day in the last long weekend of summer. The last big summertime drive when we jam the highways to visit friends and family, relax, maybe set up the camper or barbecue in our backyards while we rue (or celebrate) the start of school.

As with many holidays, we take for granted exactly why we have this day off. However, we would do well to take a moment and ponder the origins of Labor Day, especially with the backdrop of what is happening today.

Back in the 1880s, the Pullman company was making railroad sleeping cars out of Pullman, Illinois. Back then Pullman was supposed to be a workers’ utopia. For almost a decade, this company town provided housing for all the workers, had its own bank from which paychecks were drawn and the rent was automatically deducted from paychecks. It was arguably a smooth and successful operation.

That is until 1893 when a nationwide economic depression hit. There wasn’t a lot of demand for the sleeping cars and hundreds of employees where laid off while others took wage cuts. However, cost of goods at the company store and rents did not drop.

Employees started to strike for lower rents and higher pay. Sympathetic railroad workers nationwide boycotted trains with Pullman cars and soon violence erupted in different locations. President Grover Cleveland issued an injunction that declared the boycott illegal and then sent soldiers to run the trains again which was met with even more violence including deaths.  

As 1894 was an election year, Cleveland took some harsh criticism. Immediately following the strike, legislation declaring Labor Day as a national holiday passed unanimously in both houses. And just six days after the end of the strike, Cleveland signed it into law making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday. Cleveland was not re-elected.

Days before and after this legislation passed, parades celebrating the wage earner were held in many major cities. But while the days of political organizing and national parades have long disappeared as unionized labor diminished, we should not let today pass without a solid moment of reflection.

During these hard economic times, it is again the American worker that is taking the brunt of it. Productivity is up while the workforce numbers are down. Some are pointing to greater efficiencies from technology and manufacturing. However, we need to remember that those who are still working, in many cases, are doing so with longer hours and relatively less pay than before this recession.

According to statistics provided by The Washington Post, there are more than 7.6 million people who are working more than one job and 17.7 million people leave for work between midnight and 5:59 a.m. to commute to work. And 27 percent of workers are putting in more than 40 hours a week. About 7 percent work 60 or more hours a week.

Yes, investments and capital help fuel our economy. But the engine is manned by the American worker. The United States has a reputation for high productivity and an enviable standard of living both of which foster a strong democracy. And for that we should give thanks and celebrate American workers who are struggling to keep that reputation — and our economy — alive.

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