Is Labor Day Still Relevant?

Justice Perspective, September, 2013, WNY Catholic

            

Did you know that Labor Day was declared a national holiday in 1894 during the Presidency of Grover Cleveland? Or that it was established in response to the killing by the US military of 30 workers striking against the Pullman Railway company?

            Did you know that just three years earlier in 1891 Pope Leo XIII issued his encyclical Rerum Novarum, on the rights of workers and the dignity of work?

            As we celebrate Labor Day 2013 we should be conscious of what the holiday is all about and what the Church teaches about the issue of work and workers. Unfortunately, it seems that we have allowed the retail industry in this country to hijack this holiday and turn it into nothing more than another reason to participate in our national pastime of shopping.

            The tragedy is that while many people use Labor Day to shop, those who work in the retail industry not only do not have a holiday, but frequently have to work even longer hours to accommodate the extra business. And retail employment in our country accounts for 24% - nearly one fourth - of all jobs, so a significant number of our citizens are compelled to work on a day that was intended to honor workers.

            In their 2013 Labor Day Statement, the US Bishops remind us that each Labor Day “is an opportunity to take stock of the ways workers are honored and respected.” And it seems that if we “take stock” honestly, we might conclude that honor and respect for workers is, perhaps, at its lowest point since the sweat shops and child labor factories of the early 1900s.

            The Bishops point out that half of the jobs in our country pay less than $27,000 per year. That is the poverty line for a family of five. The Church has consistently supported the moral obligation of paying workers a “just wage”, which the Church defines as the amount necessary for a person to provide for their own material, social, cultural, and spiritual life and that of their dependents.  How many people do you know that can do that on $27,000 a year or less?

            Acknowledging the widening gap between the affluent and the poorest people in our nation, the Bishops say that the only way to reduce that gap is by creating quality jobs that provide a just compensation and enable workers to live in the dignity appropriate for themselves and their families. And yet so many employers continue to move jobs overseas, or employ increasing numbers of part-time workers to avoid paying benefits, or encourage employment turnover to keep mostly lower-paid workers.

            Consider, too, that there has been a consistent effort on the part of employers to eliminate and prevent unions from representing workers. In 2012, only 11.3% of public and private workers were part of a union – down from 20.1% just thirty years ago in 1983.  And for private sector workers, only 6.6% of them are represented by unions. The Bishops highlight that Catholic teaching has consistently affirmed the right of workers to choose to form a union and bargain collectively. These days this right is being squashed in both the public and private sectors.

            As Catholics, we should either follow the request of our Bishops to promote the dignity of the human person through work that is honorable, pays just wages and recognizes the God-given dignity of the working person; or we should just stop celebrating “Labor Day”.