Labor Day weekend is considered the official end of summer and the start of fall.
Most of us come from a long line of hard-working people – men and women willing to do jobs that would have today’s generations demanding their rights under the Geneva Convention. Some of us have grandmothers who were a “Rosie the Riveter,” helping to build tanks to support the war effort during World War II. Grandpas, dads and uncles used welding torches and drill presses on assembly lines to make tractors, cars or anything else made of steel. Every time we grab our favorite fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, we should be reminded of the agricultural workers who picked, packed and shipped that produce to all corners of our great country. This is what Labor Day is really all about.
The history of Labor Day dates to 1882 when two different men with very similar names are credited with having invented the idea: Peter McGuire vs. Matt Maguire. Labor Day officially became a national holiday in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland signed it into law. Last September, Karen Zraick at The New York Times proposed that President Cleveland signed the new law to show support for and gain the support of striking Pullman railroad car workers on the South Side of Chicago. This must be the official reason for Labor Day in America. Anyone from Illinois knows you don’t mess with South Siders.
As a healthcare organization, we encourage you all to take heart and honor the kinds of health conditions our early laborers dealt with while building this country – things that today we simply don’t have to worry about thanks to better labor laws and advances in modern medicine. Consider the hot fumes that factory workers had to inhale, the coal dust that landed in so many young lungs underground in coal mines, the repetitive injuries to joints brought on by spending eight hours a day running the factory machines or bent over lifting heavy crates of produce for more than 20 years.
These are the people we should be honoring on Labor Day at our small town picnics and barbecues. We can thank the men and women who demanded better working conditions and flat-out invented better machines for the “cushy” lifestyle we all live today. Let’s all remember not to take that for granted. We live longer, healthier and more active lives today thanks to the fruits of the laborers who came before us. Let the tractor pulls commence!