Here in the US, Labor Day marks an unofficial end of summer. Perhaps not so much here in Florida, where summer is slow to pack its bags: an unwelcome guest that just won’t take a hint. But I have spent summers in New England and there, you’ll notice a definite shift that drifts in around the First of September. There is, with the arrival of the first of these “Ember Months,” a sudden flagging of interest in the frozen custard stand and other such summery ideas. This year, the First of September also happens to be Labor Day, but Labor Day is a movable holiday, celebrated each year on the First Monday of September. Come Labor Day, those frozen custard thoughts begin shifting toward pumpkin pie thoughts and our sights toward the apples ripening on the trees. Change is in the air.
And then there is the official aspect of Labor Day, a holiday created to acknowledge the contributions of the American worker. The founding of the holiday goes back to the heyday of the American Labor movement and the glorious ideals that went hand in hand with that movement. The first Labor Day celebration was organized by the Central Labor Union and occurred in New York City on September 5, 1882. It was a Tuesday. By 1884, the holiday was moved to its current First Monday of September date and was being celebrated in industrial centers across the country, usually with parades and speeches.
Unions have done great things for this country, but they are also a matter of contention. I have had two experiences with unions that illustrate both ends of the spectrum. There was the time I was working a job in Providence, Rhode Island, and I happened to pick up a broom to sweep the work area and was promptly told to put the broom down, for the sweeping had to be done by union members only. Well. Okay, then. And then there was my grandfather, Arturo, a card carrying member of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Union, Local 1, New York, from the 1920s on. That was most of his life. I remember when he was awarded a gold union card on his 50th anniversary with the union. I was a little boy then. The card is still in the frame he placed it in, and it hangs in my grandmother’s old room at my family’s home. I was too young to ask Grandpa what the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Union meant to him. He, too, was probably of two minds about it, but still, I know he was proud of that card, so that seems to say something about his experience. Happy Labor Day.
Image: A postcard of the old Union Printers Home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, built in the 1890s by the International Typographical Union to care for the sick and aging members of the union. Of course this holds some historic interest to letterpress printers like myself. The home is still in operation but is open to all now, not just printers and typographers. This, I think, represents that ideal of the best of what a union can be: an organization that looks out for its members. You pull for me & I’ll pull for you.
Your note on Labour Day is interesting, and is a lovely reflection on this time of year! Here in Ottawa Canada,the summer-to-fall shift is well underway. The crickets in the meadow near my home are singing constantly, late August being cricket mating season. The tones of green in the forest foliage are changing to a darker shade with hints of gold and red appearing. There is a nip in the morning air. The geese are beginning to flock on the river nearby, in preparation for their journey south. And in a couple of months, I’ll follow them. I look forward to coming to some of your events this winter!
I’m looking forward to the shift here, Josee. For sure we’ll experience an occasional day of drier air here in Lake Worth, but we are a humid people and we know the glorious days of perfect Florida weather are still a little ways away. I think the geese will be bringing them.
I worked in a union shop, though I was not a member. The ILGWU – the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (sing along with me : “Look for the union label, when you are buying a coat, dress or blouse . . .”) was the union and the shop made little girls clothes sold at Sears and other places. Not much of that happening the USA today. The union benefits I saw firsthand and that I benefitted from myself despite not being a member were a better than average pay rate, healthcare benefits and paid vacations. I left the job after a couple of years. Jobs like that are few and far between these days.
I remember those commercials on TV! But I do notice an uptick in interest in smaller companies making things here in the US. Betabrand in San Francisco comes to mind. Hopefully we’ll see a resurgence in interest in people rather than in lowest prices. There’s more to life than saving a few pennies.
ironic: i belong to the nys teacher’s union, and i have no choice but to belong if i wish to teach in a public school. like most of us americans, i like choice. as the season slides into less daylight and cricketsong all day long, the maples are dancing red and staghorn sumac is burgandy…fall arrives. labor day? the day before school starts!
If I was lucky, on my summer internships in grad school, I’d get to see a hint of those red swamp maples and staghorn sumacs before I’d leave Maine to head back to school in Alabama. There’s nothing quite like that red of a stand of swamp maples in New England.
You probably know all about this already, but there’s a book by Maggie Holtzberg-Call entitled The Lost World of the Craft Printer (University of Illinois Press, 1992). Some of her research was conducted at the Union Printers Home in Colorado.
You’d be surprised at how little I know, Chris.
As usual John a wonderful post. Thanks for sharing. Your rememberance of Unions struck a memory of mine. While working for Chas P Young Co. In NY. (Financial Printer) I worked in the Custome Service area that was the only non-union area of the company. All the typesetters (Linotype & computer), Prepress Department, Pressmen & Shipping were all Union.
While working a job one evening, I was getting rather impatient while pages were being corrected in Typesetting. Customers were waiting to release the job to go on press that was being held. Finished books were wanted the next morning. So I went out into the shop and began pulling pages and proofing them myself. You can just imagine what came next. The shop steward halted work in the shop. Escorted me out of the area and filed a greivance against the company. The end result was a late job for the customer and me being banished from the floor for a few months. I learned my lesson and still work in the industry to this day. Although I now work in a non-union environment.
On the othe hand my Dad, after all those years working with your father as partners and owning Cutrone Auto Service absolutely loved all the union benefits. Ie: medical, vacation, pension, etc.
I think he was a true Union man @ heart.
Thanks again John
That last little phrase made me smile…”You pull for me, I’ll pull for you” evokes the silky feel and solidity of the mighty wood & iron arm on the old platen press. So apt!
In this Pacific Northwest, fires are burning in the mountains as the air cools and warms and cools again. Berries are ripening on the wild vines, heaped by every field, road and track. Apples festoon the abandoned orchard trees, and plums and pears, heavy with sweetness, are falling of their own accord. Hazelnuts, too. Leaves are edging with yellow and red, slowly, slowly. A big sturdy buck has stopped to rest under some storm-tilted firs just down the hillside. Six points.