Hat tip to Talking Points Memo for finding this labor day gem on Eric Cantor’s Twitter feed:
Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.
I guess it’s up to each individual American to find their own meaning in our national holidays, but thinking Labor Day is about celebrating business owners is a little like saying that the Fourth of July is about honoring the British.
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I’m starting to feel sorry for the RNC. A Republican somewhere must know that the wealthy, white, male, business owner demographic will only go so far.
Thank you Arizona labor unions and members for standing up for workers, job and public safety, fair wages, decent working conditions and a better quality of life for us all.
Dearest Readers,
I guess that means business owners don’t labor? That whatever they have just get there? That they don’t do at least some of their own work?
Think about it — their labor (and notice I resisted the temptation to spell it “labour”) paved the way for others to have labor. By no means does this excuse bosses who exploit, demean, and endanger their workers, but really, they can’t all be bad, can they?
To build upon Sir Tedski’s metaphor, to say we shouldn’t include management who labor — especially those who praise, inspire, reward, appreciate, and value their workers — is like saying Thanksgiving is only for Pilgrims.
Your Humble Servant,
Christopher
Christopher-
No one is saying that business owners don’t work. Labor Day was explicitly created to honor those who work for others. Cantor’s tweet doesn’t seem to find room to honor them.
Christopher: Call me the next time rank-and-file workers hire Pinkerton detectives to break the skulls of business owners.
Christopher,
You must know that Cantor is not confused about or attempting to rewrite the historical meaning of Labor Day. Always the hyper-partisan haters of all things union, the RNC is just hoping to get some RW radio mileage from his comment.
Here’s what I taught my students about Labor Day on Tuesday (from a book I read):
“Labor is another word for work. We honor American workers on Labor Day…Some are firefighters, teachers, and factory workers…The workers wanted to make things better. They started groups called labor unions.”
My class reacted strongly when they saw a photo of some very young children working in a factory. A discussion ensued, and a student responded: “I don’t want to go to work. I want to go to school!” (Yay)
Dearest Readers,
If Labor Day is meant to honor those who work for others, does that include middle managers who aren’t really “on the floor,” and not in the front office, either?
I am one of those people who are in this job description — supervising others and yet not the boss. The demands of a TV newsroom have your humble servant (and his fellow producers) working their tails off. No, we’re not unionized, and I don’t see it happening, especially not in Arizona.
My point is this: it seems to me people believe Labor Day is only for union members, despite the rhetoric of others to broaden the definition to include “the American worker.” If it truly is a holiday to honor American workers, why are we saying that management can’t be included in that definition?
If it truly is a “union-only” holiday, or “working-stiff only” day, then maybe we should just call it “Union Day” or “Working Stiff Day.” At least that would be clearer.
With Blessings To All Workers (Even The Ones At The Top),
Christopher
Christopher,
Go look up the history of Labor Day. And then look up the Pullman Strike.
If you are management, that day was not about you. It is not about the owners (small business or otherwise.)
It is about the workers. The laborers. The ones who were slaughtered for demanding decent pay and treatment. The ones who were locked in factories that, when those factories caught fire, died because of those locked doors. (And I am thinking of the Hamlet food processing plant fire, not Triangle Shirtwaist which was even more tragic as the owners actually *made a profit* on their workers’ deaths.) The ones who do the dirty and often times demeaned and demeaning work for the entitled classes (hint, that includes you.)
Those are the people we honor on Labor Day.
Stop demanding it be about you, Mr. Middle Manager. Because it never was and never will be.
My Dearest Appleblossom,
I do not think of myself as “entitled.” I consider myself blessed.
For the record, I am not some cretin barking my will to peons. I do not make them toil for my personal pleasure. I do not demean them or force them to do demeaning work. I know I can only speak for myself.
And by no means am I demanding it be about me. I am simply posing questions for people to consider when they think about labor and Labor Day, something I thought I could do with a reasonable expectation of being treated respectfully and not automatically lumped in with the so-called “horrible bosses.”
But then again, this is the Internet.
Your Humble Servant,
Christopher
Christopher, I actually agree with you that the middle manager is a worker, dependent on the direction and rule of the owners. They are similar to the foreman, the lead worker, etc. In many ways their labor is also difficult, disliked in many cases by those below and those above. It is a status that can make or break the character of those who hold it. To me personally, Labor Day can honor all those whose paycheck is signed by someone else, just as Veteran’s Day is larger than just the now extinct survivors of WWI.
You obviously made no effort to learn the history of the day and why it is, once again, NOT ABOUT YOU.
So stop demanding we make it about you.