We exercise a certain practicality about our holidays. The move to Mondays makes perfect sense to me. Trouble is, that practicality can lead us to lose sight of what we’re celebrating, because what we are honestly celebrating is a three day weekend. Many of our Monday holidays are celebrations of soldiers and victories of various kinds. Labor Day is different.
Before I dive into the origin of Labor Day please note that I am a big fan of work. Work encompasses a great deal of what it means to bear God’s image. I’m also in favor of that kind of labor that makes you sweat. Though much of my own labor takes place sitting down in air-conditioned buildings, I am also a farmer. I work some outside, amidst my own sweat and the stench of animals.
What I am not such a fan of, sadly, is what the holiday was actually created for. The “Labor” in “Labor Day” is not work, or even the kind of labor that makes you sweat. Rather the holiday was created by the federal government to grease the palms of “organized” labor. It was created for unions.
Once again some subtlety matters here. There’s nothing in the world ethically wrong with a group of men agreeing they won’t work unless certain conditions are met. If that’s what a union does, more power to it, says I. It may not help them but I can’t blame them for trying. It may, on the other hand, run headlong into basic economics.
The problem comes when one group of men decides that no other men can work unless certain conditions are met. Especially when the first group discourages the second group with violence.
Cross a picket line and becoming a victim of violence becomes a real possibility. The very least you can expect is to be hated, yelled at, called a scab. What are you guilty of? Being willing to work. You, ironically, rather than “management” are the enemy of “organized” labor. Because you are the competition.
For decades the federal government, in exchange for political support, tipped the scales of justice on behalf of unions. In twenty four states and the District of Columbia, unions are given the legal power to keep non-union labor out.
The slow decline of organized labor over the past forty years has had a simple cause- unions generally fail to deliver the goods. Collective bargaining has not brought to pass wildly different pay scales and work environments than what the market produces simply through the working a supply and demand.
That’s a good thing. And something for which we ought to give thanks. Maybe Labor Day can become what it should have been all along, a celebration of God’s gift of work, for all of us, whatever color collar we wear, whether we negotiate in groups, or one at a time.
All men are by rights free to make their own financial decisions, without threat of violence, from either union members, or governments. We exercise dominion to the glory of the Father. We provide for our families. We enter into the joy of Psalm 128:
Blessed is every one who fears the Lord,
Who walks in His ways.
When you eat the [a]labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you out of Zion,
And may you see the good of Jerusalem
All the days of your life.
Yes, may you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!
For more economics from a biblical perspective see my Economics for Everybody.