What Day?!

Labor Day is known as May Day, which is the first day of month of May every year and in most of the western countries. However, in the US, the first Monday in September (and this year it is September 3^rd) is Labor Day. Celebration of this day is becoming more ridiculous every year, as the labor becomes more disfranchised and less appreciated every year, and jobs for the labor gets more scares by day.


 

The first question that comes to mind is: what is labor and who is a laborer? Automation and computerization has changed the old meaning of labor. The color of the collar does not determine who belongs to the labor class any longer. The classic description of a laborer is “a person who sells his work for a price”. This work does not necessarily have to be manual work. Therefore, a doctor who works for Kaiser may be considered a laborer. Accepting this definition, Labor Day is inclusive of majority of Americans working in almost all fields, whether in a factory or in a farm, in a hospital, in a museum or in a government office. The person could be practicing dentistry, could be farming, or accounting, software engineering, ditch digging, cabling, or any other job that is compensated by an organization and for a certain rate, instead of receiving price of the service from the client, directly. This will put majority of people in labor category. About hundred years ago, every neighborhood had its own grocer, butcher shop, bakery, drug store, shoe store, and other necessary trades, where people of that neighborhood would shop from and would pay the owner of the shop, who was the owner and the provider of the service. Ease of communication and transportation centralized all these businesses in a shopping center or a shopping mall, with most of the people working in those store considered "labor". 

According to Wikipedia:

“In 1882, Matthew Maguire, a machinist, first proposed the holiday while serving as secretary of the CLU (Central Labor Union) of New York. Others argue that it was first proposed by Peter J. McGuire of the American Federation of Labor in May 1882, after witnessing the annual labor festival held in Toronto, Canada.

Oregon was the first state to make it a holiday in 1887. By the time it became a federal holiday in 1894, thirty states officially celebrated Labor Day. Following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland reconciled with Reyes, leader of the labor movement. Fearing further conflict, the United States Congress unanimously voted to approve rush legislation that made Labor Day a national holiday; Cleveland signed it into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. The September date originally chosen by the CLU of New York and observed by many of the nation's trade unions for the past several years was selected rather than the more widespread International Workers' Day because Cleveland was concerned that observance of the latter would be associated with the nascent Communist, Syndicalist and Anarchist movements that, though distinct from one another, had rallied to commemorate the Haymarket Affair in International Workers' Day. All U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the territories have made it a statutory holiday.”

The article in Wikipedia mentions that Haymarket massacre was the commemoration of the May Day, or International Workers’ Day. This day is described in many publications (such as Howard Zinn’s A People History of the US) in detail. In brief, it was a peaceful demonstration at Haymarket Square in Chicago by workers demanding an eight hour work day, on a Tuesday on May 4 1886. Many organizational leaders made speeches in support of the demands, while the police had surrounded the group trying to disperse people in the meeting. As of today, it is not disclosed how and why and by whom a dynamite bomb was thrown into the police line, killing seven officers and four others at the spot, and injuring many others. The police started shooting in response, and lined up and arrested whoever they could reach. Seven people, who were organizers or speakers of the event, were tried and condemned to death. Considering that the government could never find an evidence as to who threw the bomb and considering that those convicted were either making the speech, or were standing in that circle (far away from where the bomb blasted) at the time of the bomb, it was clear to everyone that none of the arrestees could have been in that conspiracy. However, many people suspected the conspiracy to have been made by the government. An international outcry resulted in the sentence of two of the defendants to be commuted to life in prison by the governor, while one defendent killed himself (alleged) in jail instead of facing the gallows. The other four were hanged on November 11, 1887. All others were freed from jail, except one who was sentenced to 15 years. The governor of Illinois in 1893, criticized the trial and freed those remaining in jail. This incident shows how many lives have been lost and how many years it could take in order to gain any relieve for the labor (such as 8 hour work day, what we basically take it for granted), and how easily that benefit can be reversed by a legislator. As we know, according to the last crack down on labor benefits, a person may work longer than eight hours, without receiving overtime, as long as the total hours for the week is less than 40 hours. May first was recognized as International Day of Labor because of this event (that happened in the US), except by the US government!

Wikipedia writes about recognition of Haymarket affair and site as follows:

“The Haymarket affair is generally considered significant as the origin of international May Day observances for workers. The site of the incident was designated a Chicago Landmark on March 25, 1992, and a public sculpture was dedicated at the site in 2004. The Haymarket Martyrs' Monument in nearby Forest Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark on February 18, 1997.”

Considering that a real labor union is basically non-existent in this country, as they are as powerless as the labor they are presenting, celebration of the labor by the government is ludicrous. In 1980, Ronald Reagan started pulling any teeth unions had. He was very successful by mas firing of all air traffic controllers when they all united in a strike. Reagan’s policy of stripping powers and benefits from labor has continued to this day. The best way to minimize labor’s pay is to create an “army of workers”, and let them fight with each other over a measly pay. Massive layoffs are the best way to increase this army, some of which could be recruited in US Army to be sent to some faraway lands to fight in getting or keeping other countries’ natural resources for American corporations. According to ABC’s Good Morning America program of three days ago (August 31, 12):

“It's seems it's going to be another tough Labor Day for labor. The U.S. unemployment rate is 8.2 percent, with most jobs lost this year from local and federal government.
In the private sector, many companies are shedding headcount less due to a flailing economy, as in previous years, but because of the state of its business or industry, said John Challenger, CEO of executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
While many companies quietly and slowly reduce headcount, here are some of the biggest layoff announcements this year that crossed news headlines, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
….
Technology company Hewlett-Packard announced in May that it expects "approximately 27,000 employees to exit the company, or 8.0 percent of its workforce, as of Oct. 31, 2011, by the end of fiscal year 2014."
…
American Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy in November, had initially announced in February that it would eliminate 13,000 positions in a restructuring process, but it has since narrowed those cuts to 10,000.
….
Food and beverage company PepsiCo announced a number of strategic changes in February, such as increasing advertising by $500 to $600 million this year and reducing headcount by 8,700 across 30 countries. The reduction represents about 3 percent of its global workforce and less than 2 percent domestically.
…
In January grocer Food Lion, owned by Delhaize America, based in Salisbury, N.C., announced 4,900 employees were exiting the company, some related to the closure of 113 Food Lion stores. The company has about 74,000 total employees.
…
Last year, consumer products company Procter & Gamble announced plans to reduce its global non-manufacturing enrollment by 10 percent, or about 5,700 roles, over two years ending June 30, 2013.
…
In January, Buffets Inc., the owners of Old Country Buffett and HomeTown Buffet, said it was filing for bankruptcy and it planned to close 81 restaurants nationwide, which Challenger, Gray and Christmas estimates is leading to a cut of 3,000 positions.
…
In June, grocer Albertsons announced it was laying off up to 2,500 workers in California and Nevada beginning that month
…
In July, electronics retailer Best Buy announced it was laying off 2,400 workers, including 600 Geek Squad (aka tech support) representatives.”

Automation was mentioned earlier, and the belief that technology makes life easier. That is everyone’s expectation. But when we compare todays lifestyle with a generation before us, we do not see that. Communication is easier and faster with the internet and cellphone and satellites. But one of our parents had to work a forty hours a week job and he could manage a family of five or seven or ten (including grandparents in some cases). Although the communication was much slower, people could communicate more, and have more quality time. Nowadays, both parents work and they can still not manage a family of two or three or four. People live longer, but value of pensions (if any) and social security is much less than a generation ago. The reason is not that family needs are more and more expensive, or the wealth has disappeared in the society, but that the distribution of wealth is fair. Robert Reich worked in the government in Clinton’s cabinet and he is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; Author, 'Beyond Outrage', in an article titled: Labor Day 2012 and the Election of 2012: It's Inequality, Stupid. He posted the following article on 8/31/12:
 “The most troubling economic trend facing America this Labor Day weekend is the increasing concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the very top -- among a handful of extraordinarily wealthy people -- and the steady decline of the great American middle class.
Inequality in America is at record levels. The 400 richest Americans now have more wealth than the bottom 150 million of us put together.
Republicans claim the rich are job creators. Nothing could be further from the truth. In order to create jobs, businesses need customers. But the rich spend only a small fraction of what they earn. They park most of it wherever around the world they can get the highest return.
The interesting event in Republican’s RNC of this year was demonstration by Ron Paul’s supporters after the Republican National Committee voting not to seat 10 delegates from Maine and replacing them with pro-Mitt Romney ones. Also 10 alternates were not seated.”

Our president did not deliver the minimum of what he promised four years ago. He expanded the fruitless wars, he created new wars, he added to the deficit, he created a new way of mass killing (drones), and the rate unemployment has increased steadily. The alternative happens to be much worse! Mitt Romney is one of those who has squeezed the labor in this country and created a wealth unimaginable to 90% of Americans. In an interview with Democracy Now!, Matt Taibbi, a reporter from Rolling Stones, talked about Romney as follows:

“Well, you know, for me, it started when I had to cover this campaign earlier this year, and I was listening to Romney’s stump speech about debt. You know, he came up with this whole image of a prairie fire of debt raging across America that was literally going to burn children alive in the future. And I kept thinking to myself, does nobody know what this guy did for a living and how he made his money? You know, Mitt Romney is unabashedly a leverage buyout artist. And a leverage buyout artist is a guy who borrows lots of money that other companies have to pay back. And that’s the simple formula. He started out—his most famous deals, of course, are essentially venture capital deals like the Staples situation, where he built a company from the ground up. But after Staples, he switched to a different model, that he preferred for the rest of his professional career, in which he took over existing companies by putting down small amounts of his own cash, borrowing the rest from—typically from a giant investment bank, taking over controlling stakes in companies, and then forcing those companies to pay him either through management fees or through dividends. And that’s his business formula.

Mitt Romney comes from a wealthy family. He was then very successful financially as Vice President and then as CEO of management consulting firm Bain & Company, and as co-founder of the private equity investment firm he spun off, Bain Capital. He and his wife have a net worth of roughly a quarter of a billion dollars.Mitt Romney released his 2010 tax return on Monday. His total income for the year was listed as $21.6 million, more than one-half of which came from capital gains.”

Finally, let us see how labor organizations are doing. Compare the numbers in the following chart with any chart produced previously (all the way back to 1973) and see the constant decline. Then, compare total number of unionized labor in this table (about 17 million) with total estimated labor force in the US (about 140 million, source: Bureau of Labor Statistics). According to September 1, 2012 Daily Almanac (infoplease.com):

National Labor Organizations with Membership over 100,000

Members	Union1
2,731,419	National Education Association of the United States2
1,505,100	Service Employees International Union3
1,459,511	American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
1,396,174	International Brotherhood of Teamsters3
1,311,548	United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
828,512	American Federation of Teachers
754,978	United Steelworkers of America
704,794	International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
669,772	Laborers' International Union of North America
653,781	International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
557,099	International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America
545,638	Communications Workers of America
522,416	United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America2
455,346	Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees
424,579	Longshore and Warehouse Union
392,584	International Union of Operating Engineers
361,362	Maritime Trades
324,043	United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe-Fitting Industry of the U.S. and Canada
292,221	National Association of Letter Carriers
286,700	American Postal Workers Union
271,463	International Association of Fire Fighters
269,204	National Postal Mail Handlers Union
245,011	Paper, Allied-Industrial, and Chemical International Union
226,975	American Federation of Government Employees
180,598	Amalgamated Transit Union
152,294	American Nurses Association2
148,806	Sheet Metal Workers International Association
127,278	International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades
125,437	International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers
125,398	Transport Workers Union of America
125,000	Building and Construction Trades
111,851	American Association of Classified School Employees2
105,460	The National Rural Letter Carriers' Association2

1. Unless otherwise noted, unions are AFL-CIO affiliated.
2. Not AFL-CIO affiliated.
3. Severed ties with the AFL-CIO in July 2005.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor.

According to this table, about 12% of the workforce is unionized. Obviously, there is a war waged against unions to dismantle them all, by moving factories beyond the borders. Protected by government policies, corporate managers' first responsibility is to increase porfitibility by cuttin cost of labor. Preventing unions to conceive in a company is the most important step towards this goal. If a union happens to have formed, it is important to buy their leaders. As a result, either unions are corrupted or in the atmosphere of hostility created between the management and workers, union members cheat the organization they work for while managers use their lack of productivity to reduce their benefits. Considering the history of the labor in the US, and the government's open policy of protection of capital against labor (outlawing and minimizing unions while wealthy investors have their own unions and clubs), Labor Day is nothing but a campaign slogan, while the slogan of the 1% is: “Capitalists of the World; UNITE!”