Here it is Labor Day. I have always wondered just what Labor day is really about and why it is at the end of summer. Here is what I found out about it from my old friend Wikipedia:

The first big Labor Day in the United States was observed on September 5, 1882, by the Central Labor Union of New York.  It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland reconciled with the labor movement. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike.

So Labor day, like many other things about the U.S. was a result of political conflicts. I should have guessed. I have always been an avid reader of U.S. history so the strikes and corresponding violence of the period are very familiar to me. The Robber Barons of the time, much like today, just didn’t want to part with any more of their wealth than absolutely necessary. They didn’t want to pay taxes or a living wage for their workers. Labor unions were their bitter enemies but their wealth just could not buy them enough political influence to maintain their stranglehold on the working guy. Soon after Labor day was instituted a Republican named Teddy Roosevelt became president and went about toppling many of the dynasties of the ultra wealthy. He gave power back to the people.

In the last twenty years or more labor unions have been in serious decline. Obviously there are many reasons but part of it is because of the greed for power and influence by the labor leaders themselves.  But mostly it can be attributed to, as it was one hundred years ago,  the current crop of robber barons (fifty percent of the wealth is controlled by two percent of the population or something like that).   I wonder if one of the Republican candidates in the current election cycle will turn out to be another Teddy. I kind of doubt it :)

But to me and probably most of you Labor Day just represents the end of summer. It is when we pack away the swimming pool supplies and start putting up the deck furniture. My trouble with this year is that it is as I am writing this it is  almost 100 degrees outside so it hardly seems like a fall day. The other reason is I just don’t know where the summer of 2011 went!  The calendar doesn’t lie so I guess I just need to put the summer into a “senior moment” or should I say “month”?

Happy Labor day to everyone, especially the real workers of America.

But what do I know….