[OT] What is Labor day? (for Plane Sailing)

[Tonguez]

Trying to stay out of politics, really I am, here goes.

Part of the reason we are so productive as a country is that the G does not tell private interprise what to do.
g!

Um don't want to do the political thing either - but you know all that Japanese productivity and economic growth after WW2 - it was all supported and largely directed by Government...

We have Labour Day here in October and yeah its another holiday

PS if you really want to enjoy life be a New Zealand Teacher officially 10 days holiday per year and the best sick leave conditions in the country (cause of all those snotty kids) The kids get 6 and then Summer/Xmas holidays from December to February and so Teachers usually get a week of every 10.

NB in most developed countries technology and productivity is such that a 4 day week is quite feasible with out loss of profit

 

[alsih2o]

Part of the reason we are so productive as a country is that the G does not tell private interprise what to do.

please tell me this is a joke.... or else osha, bwc, w+m, atf, d of l, ag, and all the others may be shocked to find they are out of a job

 

[alsih2o]

In an attempt to appease the nation's workers, Labor Day is born
The movement for a national Labor Day had been growing for some time. In September 1892, union workers in New York City took an unpaid day off and marched around Union Square in support of the holiday. But now, protests against President Cleveland's harsh methods made the appeasement of the nation's workers a top political priority. In the immediate wake of the strike, legislation was rushed unanimously through both houses of Congress, and the bill arrived on President Cleveland's desk just six days after his troops had broken the Pullman strike.

1894 was an election year. President Cleveland seized the chance at conciliation, and Labor Day was born. He was not reelected.

In 1898, Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, called it
"the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed...that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it."

 

[Vargo]

On vacation time:

The only vacation time I've had in the past 5 years has been when I was unemployed. Contractors don't get vacation time, job security, benefits, or much of anything. Nor do they get good pay, for the kind of work I've been doing. Finally got a "real" job - and for the first time in 5 years, I'm looking at actually taking a vacation and visiting my father in Washington D.C..

By the way, before everybody jumps on me about "show me the guy who forced you into that career" - the career changed around me. I'm working my way out of it. It's kinda hard when your skills are extremely specialized and you're still paying off your college loans - which cannot be nullified via bankruptcy.

 

[alsih2o]

It is a ridiculous holiday that should be revoked.

Take a day off to celebrate work?!

FD

judging from the venom and spite i see in all of your posts hear on this thread can i assume you know nothing about worker history, or is it just that you don't care?

know nothing about underpriviliged classes? or just don't care?

what is with all the attitude? it is NOT day off to celebrate work....not everyone gets to freely choose their career path (even without the "gun to the head" you mentioned earlier)and any suggestion you can discuss labor, vacation time or any such without going into politics is more than just a little ridiculous.

perhaps instead of sniping at the working class or mocking forms of gov't celebrated around the world you should spend some of that time doing a little research.

do you feel xmas should be revoked to reinforce the seperation of church and state(or easter for the same reason, how about thanksgiving)? after all there are more workers than christians in the country..

memorial day, because who cares about not working cause some guy died?

new years is obviously ridiculous because it is ordained by man, shouldn't we take that holiday on a solstice?

labor day seems, when actually looked at with an open and intelligent eye to make significantly more sense than all of these other holidays put together.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

are you sure? i mean, alot of such is judgement calls, what facts would you like to cite?

even presocialist industrial workers got more time off than the avg american worker.

what is it you know that the rest of us don't fd?

I believe FD mentioned consulting. You know, those guys who come to your office and charge WAY to much money to do work that could be done by someone in your company. Or they are brought in to tell you what a lousy job you are doing and get you put in the first round of lay-offs. Some are actually people with specialized knowledge who take full advantage of the fact that they are a rare commodity and charge even more.

When a consultant's contract is over they can usually decide how long of a vacation to take as they've earned what most of us earn in a year, sometimes more. They don't have to deal with asking for permission to take vacation or only getting a piddly two weeks.

But with the downturn in the economy, some of them will learn a hard lesson when they can't find their next contract and are 'forced' just like the rest of us to take a normal job. My sister-in-law faces such a nightmare if she can't find another contract soon. She owns a home alone and has been 'on vacation' for 3 months. If I tried that I would lose my house.

************OR********************

FD works in an industry where he is paid to work. Those people at the malls and McDonalds don't get paid if they don't work Labor Day. I remember those days.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

judging from the venom and spite i see in all of your posts hear on this thread can i assume

Ok, lets see how well your assumptions hold up, shall we-

you know nothing about worker history, or is it just that you don't care?

I know quite a lot about it, but I don't think it justifies a national holiday. There are many scopes of people that have over come adversity in this country that do not have a national holiday, but then they are not as large of a fund raiser for political parties- as are the unions.

not everyone gets to freely choose their career path

That is nonsense. Everyone in this country is born with a different hand of cards, but how each person chooses to play them is up to them.

do you feel xmas should be revoked to reinforce the seperation of church and state(or easter for the same reason, how about thanksgiving)?

Yes, I think government forced holidays are ridiculous.

This country was not made great by people sitting on the beach.

Am I opposed to people taking them off? No. Not at all.

labor day seems, when actually looked at with an open and intelligent eye to make significantly more sense than all of these other holidays put together.

Of course- yours are the intelligent and open ones, now aren't they?

know nothing about underpriviliged classes? or just don't care?

Ok, lets take a little look at what I know about underprivilged classes-

I come from a low income home where there was not always food on the table for the kids.

Before it was legal for me to work, I was doing yardwork for neighbours to help pay for food.

By the time I was legally allowed to work(14 iirc), I was not only buying my own clothing, school supplies, bus passes, but also buying my own food and helping to pay the rent.

Lets skip forward to college- I am now working full time as well as going to school full time. No help from my poor family- just college loans and my own determination.

But, I obviously had white collar jobs? Well, the collar was often white when I started work that day. *grin*

I have worked crummy, dirty, smell, and rough jobs- cleaning dishes, working wharehouses, cleaning public busses, and anything else I could get my hands on.

I did not whine about it then. I don't whine about it now.

Do I care about the underprivilaged? Yes. I care about the children who grow up in such crummy conditions, and the people who have been a dealt a horrible hand and made poor choices that left them stuck there.

Do I think a national holiday is fixing the problem? No.

what is with all the attitude?

That is a good question- I was wondering the same thing about someone whining about "tight ass penny pinching selfish corporate owners" that were keeping them down.

How is that assumption holding up?

FD

 

[Storminator]

see why politics get banned?

PS

 

[Furn_Darkside]

FD works in an industry where he is paid to work.

I am a salary employee for an educational institution, and I do consulting to make extra money- though I largely agree with your description of the consulting field.

I wish I got paid overtime, but I have high self-respect.. so I put in extra hours daily to make sure my job is done and done well.

FD

 

[Utrecht]

Hey now, there is a reason why consultants can get the rates that they get - and it is called results and timing.

The bottom line is do you pay 1 salaried person to do a job that takes 6 months or an expensive consultant that does it in 2-3 months (and oh by the way has minimal overhead costs unlike the employee) - that is a buisness decision that an organization needs to make (and I agree that sometimes organizations do not always make the right one - but it is not my job to point this out - simply to give them a superior product on the agreed upon schedule).

Getting to the European vs. American work environment. Sure I would looooove 4 - 6 weeks off, but that flexability comes at a price - the taxes that my relatives in the Netherlands pay as compared to what I pay - Uncle Sam might be greedy but the "socialsts" are more so. Further, there is a reason that goods cost more in Europe (in general) - and that is because labour is (again generally) more expensive there.