What does Labor Day mean to you? The end of summer? A day to celebrate blue collar workers and unions? Let’s not forget to “save 20, 30 and even 40% this weekend only” with our beloved Labor Day sales. When I was a kid, knowing it was coming also meant that school was coming.
There’s more than one story about how the holiday came about. But most of them have it germinating in the 1880’s. Unions were becoming more effective and powerful in this country and someone, maybe P. J. McGuire, maybe Matthew McGuire, maybe (gasp) someone in Canada decided that blue collar workers needed to be celebrated. Honestly, however it came to be and whoever had the idea, it was a good one. And a worthy one.
If you’re a member of a union, thanks for what you do. If you’re a non-union blue collar worker, thank you, too. In fact, if you work, for yourself, for a company, at home or on the road, if the work you do doesn’t necessarily work up a sweat but might leave your brain drained once in a while, if the work you do creates something tangible or simply beautiful, if your work imparts knowledge on others, if your work helps someone else live a better day or a longer life……thanks. Really, thank you.