In praise of workers and work

Monday marks the day when many of us will gather in a backyard setting with family and friends for the unofficial end of summer.

It’s Labor Day, and we’ll celebrate that annual day off like it’s our last, perhaps lounging poolside before it’s closed for the season, and firing up the grill for burgers and dogs again.

But while we’re enjoying that threeday weekend, let’s not forget what that precious day off represents. Labor Day, officially created by congressional legislation in 1894, is meant to honor the collective social and economic achievements of workers in the United States.

And most are working. The nation’s unemployment rate stood at 4.3 percent in July, representing nearly 8.4 million Americans. Maryland’s jobless rate was less than that, at 4 percent. In Charles County, the unemployment rate for June (the latest month reported by the state’s department of labor, licensing and regulation) was 4.4 percent.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the origins of the federal holiday aren’t fully known. Some historians believe Peter McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, was the first to suggest taking a day to celebrate American workers.

Others say Matthew Maguire, secretary of the International Association of Machinists Local 344 in New Jersey, called for the holiday in 1882 when he ser ved on the Central Labor Union in New York. Regardless of whose idea it was, the Central Labor Union did adopt a Labor Day proposal, and the first Labor Day was celebrated Sept. 5 of that year. More states soon caught the Labor Day bug, eventually leading to its formal blessing from Congress and signing into law by President Grover Cleveland in 1894.

Labor unions and their organized movements throughout the nation have proven effective at improving conditions for workers since the Industrial Revolution. Certainly, there are those who argue vehemently, year after year, that unions have too greatly expanded their influence today, with hands plunged deep in the pockets of lawmakers and affecting election outcomes. But politics aside, the benefits that unions have brought to construction workers, electrical workers, teachers and others, as well as the growing families they work to support, can’t be denied.

So keep that in mind this Labor Day weekend, while floating on a pool raft, stomach full and content in living the proverbial American dream. That dream, for so many, is possible today because of our histor y’s labor movements. It is in some ways a second Independence Day, a celebration of our freedom to develop our skills, market them to the highest bidder and reap the rewards.

That may get overlooked in the smoke curling off the grill and the smell of sizzling burgers, but it’s a principle that should never be forgotten.