The Day of Laborers

 By tomorrow school will start or have started around this country. Labor Day is the last holiday of summer.  I remember the first year I started teaching in public schools in Missouri my first day with kids was the day after Labor Day.  That changed by the very next year and school started earlier and earlier in August.  But something about Labor Day invokes in me the desire to get my notebooks and pens ready.  I sadly admit that even now when I have been retired for a few years I still bought some pens from the back to school displays.  It is in my blood, I guess.

But, Labor Day is supposed to be a day to honor workers.  It honors the people who work with their hands and their minds.  It was started by the labor union movement.  I think that most of America has forgotten about how things were for people before labor unionized.

In my own family, my grandfather was injured on the job working for Otis Elevator I was told.  He couldn't do the job anymore, so he was fired.  No unemployment, no safety net, no Social Security. He really wasn't able to work the rest of his life.  He had surgery to try to repair the hernia caused by the accident and shaking palsy or Parkinson's Disease started in earnest after that.  My dad's family was poor, not just because of the Depression.  There were no injury lawsuits.  There was no disability income. My grandma worked hard the rest of her life at doing people's laundry and babysitting.  She could squeak a dime, as they said.

My mom lost her first teaching job because one of the school board members' daughters graduated and wanted it.  Back in the one room school days there was no tenure. It wasn't a scandal or unexpected.  It was the way things were done back in the day.  This was a one room school house and there was only room for one teacher in the neighborhood. Mom easily found a job at another one room school in the neighborhood.

Working for other people, being a laborer has always had its risks. But honest work for honest pay should be rewarded. It is the right thing to do.  Working is something to celebrate.