"The holiday was originally intended to help celebrate unions, in the wake of the infamous Pullman Strike."
Click on the above blog title/link to read the article by Arthur Joel Katz.
I could not say this any better in regards to what most Americans have long forgotten about the origins of Labor Day. Hence, I won't try except for this brief comment. The need for vital and strong but accountable and reasonable unions (and corporations and local, state and federal government) remains paramount to a successful capitalist system. Without a more level playing field, we risk slipping back to the sub-standards, mistreatment and resulting upheaval in the workplaces of the 19th and early 20th centuries. I will stop there and let you read the article from Mr. Katz , which I believe asserts a similar need for a more balanced approach. I will maybe add another two cents later.
"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
-- George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905 (and other quoted variations). U.S. (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 - 1952).
BTW, you can read more of the Katz Meow ("Joel" Katz that is), at Hellertown-Lower Sauson, PA Patch
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