Monday, September 06, 2010
Happy Labor Day
Most of us consider Labor Day the official end of summer--its the end of summer vacations. (And, while most of us are no longer in school we still measure time by the start of the school year.)
We celebrate the end of summer with a bbq or a day at the beach or in the stores at the Back to School and Labor Day Sales. Once Labor Day was a day of speechifying and parades, but no more. Labor Day began back in the 1880s Labor Day by the NY labor unions to celebrate the workers. Congress made it a federal holiday in 1894, after the Pullman Strike resulted in the death of some strikers.
I think it fitting that we take a moment to think of the worker today--in today's economy. We are told the economy is getting better. Yet many of us are still economically insecure: the cost of living is still very high; there is still high unemployment (9.6%); little to no job growth to speak of--and the competition for those new jobs is fierce among the newly minted graduates/job seekers and the under- and un-employed; and foreclosures are still the order of the day. . .
We celebrate the end of summer with a bbq or a day at the beach or in the stores at the Back to School and Labor Day Sales. Once Labor Day was a day of speechifying and parades, but no more. Labor Day began back in the 1880s Labor Day by the NY labor unions to celebrate the workers. Congress made it a federal holiday in 1894, after the Pullman Strike resulted in the death of some strikers.
I think it fitting that we take a moment to think of the worker today--in today's economy. We are told the economy is getting better. Yet many of us are still economically insecure: the cost of living is still very high; there is still high unemployment (9.6%); little to no job growth to speak of--and the competition for those new jobs is fierce among the newly minted graduates/job seekers and the under- and un-employed; and foreclosures are still the order of the day. . .
Labels: Labor Day
