Turn, turn, turn

For those in the United States Labor Day has become the semi-official celebration of the beginning of a new school year and, every four years, a near official opening of the final campaigning push to the Presidential election.

What does Labo(u)r Day mean for you and how much has that meaning changed over the last few years.

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The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)



Comments

[Amaryllis]

When I was a kid, my father was Management (thank you, GI Bill) at the same factory where my uncles were Labor. It made for some interesting family parties.

But we never really celebrated the Labor aspect of Labor Day when I was young. The town had a parade, with the usual local-Americana themes, but nothing to really mark the origin of the celebration.

In any case, in my neighborhood, Labor Day was overshadowed by the day before, when we held the block party known as The Picnic In The Street. Seriously, we kids thought that was the coolest thing in the world, to close off an entire block (eight houses long, which didn't lead anywhere in particular, but still) for a party just for us. It was an all-day affair, with the men taking it in turns to keep the hotdogs coming, and all the women contributing their signature dishes-- nothing fancy, but there'd have been riots if my mother hadn't made her macaroni&cheese, which tastes like no other in the world, or if Mrs. S. hadn't brought the Italian sausage-and-peppers.

And then there was the year when I was grown and married (everybody brought their spouses and descendents, as the years went on) and my husband contributed the pitcher of peach daiquiris; I'm not sure the ladies have forgiven him yet, but they certainly haven't forgotten...

The tradition lasted for more than forty years. A pretty good run.

Now, I find it kind of a melancholy day. Another summer gone, another summer mostly wasted. Oh well.

[Nenya]

When I was little it was, of course, all about school--or rather, the first week of September was. We were so cut off from the Canadian mainstream that I don't think I knew what Labour Day *was* until my mid-teens.

Now it reminds me that I'm no longer in school (and that I never finished the degree I wanted to), but that a lot of my younger friends will be talking about exams and papers again soon. It means it's properly fall, now, and I'm never ready for that! But it's also a cheerful day in that it reminds me that there are still people fighting for the rights of workers, even if there are a lot of setbacks.

This year, I worked the weekend (hi, retail) but have the Monday and Tuesday off. I'm celebrating by reading up on Joe Biden vs Paul Ryan, and working on the next chapter of my space!lesbians romance.

[Lonespark]

It's Bread and Roses Day, but we never hung around for the commmemoration, because my parents both work in schools and back in the day it was the last weekend before school.

There's a lot of different New Year celebrations to choose from, but I think I feel the most up against things new and challenging in this Back to School/Harvest time.

[Brin]

I've always viewed autumn as a time of rest and fun. Similar, I gather, to how children who don't get fall vacation view summer, only with better weather and more pumpkins, apples, and Halloween candy.

This year, for the first time in as long as I can remember (possibly ever), I'm beginning school in September rather than ending it. It's disorienting.

[storiteller]

In general, I see Labor Day as another day off. Summer weather lasts here for at least a couple more weeks, so the only difference for me is that the pool is closed and the kids are waiting for the bus on the corner when I walk to the train.

In terms of the larger issues, I appreciate Labor Day and unions much more now that both my husband and I are part of unions. I think unions are important for two reasons, one of which is obvious and one of which is far less so.

The obvious one is that employers can be greedy and exploit their employees to make more money. This reason is why unions were originally created and labor laws were passed. This reason is why Fox News can claim that public sector employees (quoting FDR of all people) that public sector employees shouldn't be unionized, because the public sector isn't trying to mooch money off of its employees.

The second purpose negates that reasoning - that unions are important to protect employees from incompetence and ill-considered decisions. The public sector isn't greedy, but it's far from perfect and having a group dedicated to watching out for my interests is reassuring. For example, if there's a computer error and the HR department doesn't "feel like" fixing it, having the union provides the employee with leverage they wouldn't otherwise have. Similarly, the union can push for benefits that aren't absolutely necessary but provide substantial quality of life improvements for little extra cost, like teleworking and alternative work schedules.

[Timothy (TRiG)]

My mother has said she always gets sad when she sees ripe blackberries. For her, that's the signal of the end of the summer (and, in byegone days, the signal that her children were soon going back to school). The year turns.

TRiG.

[Nenya]

I've always heard that unions protected the rights of workers, but I never had direct experience of it (other than things like weekends and general labour laws, which were settled by other people long before I was of working age) until last fall, when I asked for, and successfully got, a disability accommodation that allowed me to keep my job (with different responsibilities) even though I'm deaf and the sales work I was going was stressing me and making my performance bottom out. And that happened ONLY because a coworker pointed me at the union and they got involved when I asked for help.

Speaking of blackberries, my love sent me this yesterday:

Blackberry Eating by Galway Kinnell
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry -- eating in late September.

[Lonespark]

(U.S.A. )(Democratic Party) Convention Fever!

I had a soccer game last night, so I missed the speeches. Catching up now.

Really appreciate Gov. Patrick's. Partly because understand what he's talking about. I have the good healthcare. My friends work generating the clean energy. Families at church have legally married parents who couldn't in most states.

But this, too: The whole idea of "Commonwealth." "When times are tough, we should turn to each other, not on each other.