Monday, October 16, 2006

The History of Labor Day

"Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means"



"Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country," said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. "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, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation."

"Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country."

The link to this article and the quote from it above best represents to me the significance of the United States reaching 100 million people around 1915. There were many employer abuses of American workers going on and many were deadly and others were maiming. Some abuses were outrageously unfair economically to the employee such as company towns and stores where workers were paid low wages, the employers were paid high rents, and they even charged highly for goods at the company stores. Many labor laws were developed at this time.

Another activity going on simultaneously were anti trust and other anti business laws were enacted where very rich investors unjustifiably sought unfair profits on smaller businesses and citizens.

The current President Bush and Congress are exploiting American labor especially by unfairly increasing the supply of labor with millions of illegal aliens, tens of thousands of H1B aliens working in America when there are Americans qualified and willing to perform the work, and by the unabashed outsourcing of American jobs overseas.

Additionally, President Bush and Congress are not obeying the constitution by not prosecuting employers of illegal aliens.

Further, President Bush and Congress are impeding other labor laws by underfunding them. The federal agencies require higher staffing levels to perform their lawful roles and when there is not enough budgeted funds for them, they cannot hire the investigators and lawyers to administer, research, and prosecute more than a token number of claims.

President Bush, Congress, and the Courts all favor employers. Many employees lost their jobs when they went out to strike and the courts allowed the employers to fire the strikers and hire replacements. Union leaders are sent to jail like the transit union leader of bus and subway workers in New York City by Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki. How they stay elected is beyond me.

President Bush and Congress also see no evil in American business except for a handful of arrests of executives that cooked their books and otherwise stole funds from the businesses. They make no effort to salvage American jobs from being sent overseas. They do nothing to save major American industries, in America's interest from self destruction like the auto assembly and fabrication industries. They import workers to be exploited by American business such as the illegal aliens and the legal H1B workers.

"Labor Day....It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country." Labor Day should not be a one day event but a daily event all year long to remind President Bush, Congress, and the courts that the American worker is responsible for the strength, prosperity, and well-being of America. All politicians should remember this.

What do you think about President Bush ignoring the welfare of American workers and putting them at disadvantages by unfairly increasing the supply of illegal aliens and H1b workers into America, underfunding labor laws, not overseeing fair business practices. Do you know whether the polititions you have to vote for are for labor or anti-labor like Bush, Congress, and the Courts?

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