Soul Food

Michele Marr

o7 When will justice come? When those who are not injured are as

indignant as those who are.f7 -- ancient Greek scholar

My husband recently got his full-color Robinsons-May Labor Day sale

flyer in the mail. I kept passing by the flyer on the table, glancing at

the whitened-teeth blond in her flat-front chamois leather pants and Clio

duster. The sale actually starts on Wednesday, Aug. 29. But

Robinsons-May, like so many other businesses, will be open on Labor Day.

It got me thinking. What exactly is the point of Labor Day? When did

it start? Why? And what in the world does it mean to us today other than

retail sales and one frantic last weekend of summer.

I don’t recall learning about Labor Day in school, not grammar school,

high school or college. I can’t remember it being mentioned when I was

studying the literature of the muckrakers, those writers and

photographers of the late 19th and early 20th century who crusaded to

reform the dark aspects of the industrial revolution, such as factory

work conditions and child labor. Those were the days of some truly

miserable, frequently disabling and often deadly working conditions.

Those were the days, I discovered, that gave rise to Labor Day.

The U.S. Department of Labor quotes Samuel Gompers, the founder of the

American Federation of Labor, regarding the day, “Labor Day differs in

every essential from the other holidays of the year in any country. All

other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and

battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and

power.”

What the DOL history doesn’t mention is that President Grover

Cleveland, in 1894 -- an election year -- signed a bill making Labor Day

a national holiday in hopes of appeasing the nation’s workers following a

violent and deadly American Railway Union strike.

The strike led to rioting, pillaging and the burning of railroad cars

by union and nonunion workers alike, as well as to the deaths of two

railroad workers at the hands of U.S. Deputy Marshals. It may have been

the first, but it surely wasn’t the last battle between labor and

industry in the shadow of greed and power.

The first Labor Day, celebrated in New York City on September 5, 1882

and sponsored by the Central Labor Union, might have been little more

than a public relations ploy.

But, the idea spread along with the growth of labor organizations.

Some histories credit a young Peter McGuire, paperboy, shoeshine kid,

messenger and piano maker’s (some say carpenter’s) apprentice with the

idea for the day. Others give Matthew Maguire, a machinist, and secretary

of Local 344 of the International Assn. of Machinists in Paterson, N.J.

the credit.

Few of us, at least few of us in the U.S., give our days to the sort

of hard labor the muckrakers sought to expose. But some still do. And as

commerce becomes more global the workers from whose backs we gain our

bargain-priced comforts and affordable luxuries -- luxuries and comforts

we have come to think of as necessities -- can live and work almost

anywhere.

I’m not particularly an advocate of labor unions. But, I am an

advocate for hard-working men and women anywhere. I don’t understand why

some should have to work insufferably long days for less than living

wages so that others may have clothes and furnishings and appliances they

couldn’t otherwise afford.

In so many areas of our nation, not to mention the rest of the world,

minimum wage is not a living wage, even when both a husband and a wife

are working. And it seems all the more ironic that it is most likely the

very worker who works the longest and the hardest for the least who does

not get to enjoy Labor Day as a holiday.

The Department of Labor describes Labor Day as “a creation of the

labor movement dedicated to the social and economic achievements of

American workers, a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers

have made to the strength, prosperity and well being of our country.”The

DOL gives this reason for the day “The vital force of labor added

materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production

the world has ever known, and has brought us closer to the realization of

our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is

appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the

creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom and leadership --

the American worker.”

Were she here today, Marie Antoinette might say, “Let them eat cake!”I

say give them a living wage and give them the day off.

* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer and graphic designer from

Huntington Beach. She has been interested in religion and ethics for as

long as she can remember. She can be reached at o7

[email protected]