Labor Day

Whatever the work is, do it well:

Lunch Box: photo by Cliff Hutson

Today marks Labor Day's 140th anniversary in America. It is a federal holiday observed annually on the first Monday of September. The day celebrates the labor movement in the US and the contributions and achievements of the American worker.

This year, the day has been more in the forefront of my mind as for my birthday a friend gave me a classic lunch box that reminded me of from whence I came.  

Working-class kid:

The term “working class” often typically describes members of the labor force that do not hold a bachelor’s degree. Common working class occupations include restaurant employees, auto mechanics, construction workers, and service-type workers.

My father owned his own business, but it entailed a lot of hard physical labor. And, from the time I was tall enough to push a broom and until I entered college I worked alongside him as much as my schooling and sports allowed. One reason why I like the new lunch box so much is that it reminds me of how we carried our meals and snacks when out on a job.

[Note: I just finished watching the "A League of Their Own" series on Amazon Prime Video. I enjoyed seeing all of the lunch pails in many of the scenes at the screw factory.]

I also found jobs on my own. Thus, I ended up mowing lawns, pulling weeds, clearing brush, and doing janitorial work in my tweens (that was not a term back then) and teens. One job of a different sort was helping an architect measure buildings to aid in his design of renovations to them. That got me to thinking about going to college and moving on up in the world.

A good union job:

Working with my Dad was hard. But, it was honest work and I took a great deal of satisfaction in it. However, I could see that it had its limitations and knew that I would have to strike out on my own. 

Labor Day grew out  of the labor union movement. The fortunes of organized labor have ebbed and flowed over my lifetime. When I entered the official workforce, around one-third of U.S. workers were members of a union, and I became one of them. Sadly, to my way of thinking, today, union membership is at just 10 percent of workers, with local government employees accounting for most of those. 

There is no doubt in my mind that collective bargaining boosted my pay, improved my benefits and give me some modicum of control over my schedule so that I could work part time and carry nearly a full load in college. I was able to cover all my expenses - rent, food, tuition, and so on - and graduate with out any debt. 

Through no fault of their own, many young people today will not be able to do the same, should they have the same desire. Jobs like that just do not seem to exist in the County of Los Angeles where the "minimum wage" is well short of the "living wage".

You are not the work you do; you are the person you are:

Office Space: photo by Cliff Hutson

Since graduating college, I have had many kinds of jobs, but I have never considered the level of labor to be the measure of myself, and I have never placed the security of a job above the love of family. 

And, even though most of my tech career was spent behind a desk as a manager I was always pro union. I believed that what was good for the people who were on my team was also good for me, and ultimately the business. May be that is why I never made the "C-suite'.