The Interesting thing about Labor Day

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Here we are, Labor Day 2014.

Creating jobs is a private sector function, and government backs labor unions who state it is their jobs to protect jobs, and to ensure fair employment practices.

A little good, mixed with a little bad.

The original purpose of labor unions was to protect the workers, to encourage legislation to guarantee those protections.  A very worthy cause, on the surface.  But labor unions don't care about such things, anymore.

Labor Unions have declared war on conservatism, because the two don't always sit in the same camp when it comes to the political, or economic, realm.  We must remember that Marxist socialism was the inspiration for the labor movement. Don't get me wrong, I get it that in the beginning the unions were an integral part of changing the laws for the protection of the workforce against corrupt business practices. But now that we have a whole slew of laws in place to protect the workers, what good is the continued existence of the unions?

Even more dangerous than the private sector unions, however, are the public unions, which are nothing less than a money laundering operation for the corrupt politicians to buy votes. But even the private labor unions pose as a problem, for worker's rights are no longer the reason the union leaders bargain on the other side of the table.

When a private labor union forces a corporation into a bad deal, it puts a strain on the company, often sending these corporations into bankruptcy. This causes a loss of investment with the shareholders, a loss of jobs in the system, and a loss of production in our economy.  Their intention is not what is best for the American Economy, but what is best for their position of power.

If the private unions really cared about the workers, and the American economy, they would not be striking deals that destroy the private sector, and result in the loss of jobs.

The economic reality is that unions more often than not kill job security because of the unsustainable deals they demand, including outrageous pensions, and cadillac health care plans, that wind up hindering any growth the corporation may have in the works, and ultimately forcing the company into a position of losing profit, downsizing, and eventually closing its doors.

On the other side a concept called "right-to-work" has been on the rise.  This allows employees the right to refuse to join a union in order to work.  A number of States have adopted "right-to-work" legislation.

Labor Day is the celebration of the workers, a holiday brought on by the labor union movement.  Labor Day is an annual holiday that celebrates the dignity of being a member of the working class. A response to the socialistic celebration of Mayday, of origins reaching way back into the 19th century.

During the mid-1800s, after continued abuses by manufacturers, labor unions rose up. The inspiration for the first American Labor Day came from an alliance between the American Federation of Labor (AFL), craft unions, and local central labor federations in 1882. Waves of strikes followed lasting through the middle of the 1890s, reaching a crescendo that called out the police, and ultimately the army, to control the situation. The Pullman Strike, led by future Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs in 1894, was crushed, and Debs was imprisoned for his involvement. The problem was being pushed to a breaking point.

In the Northeast the unions and federations had traditions of summer holidays, and the government decided a day for labor where beer drinking and family fun was the plan of the day would help quell the unrest. Shortly after the end of the Pullman Strike, Democrat President Grover Cleveland rushed a bill recognizing Labor Day through Congress. The Democrats had been bruised by the fact that they were largely behind calling in the police and army, and needed a way to mend fences, and create an image that they supported the workers.

Not a single elected official in Congress voted against this measure.

President Cleveland chose the September date in order to set the American holiday off from European Mayday. An AFL resolution of 1909 declared the first Sunday to be the proper Labor Day, and eventually all states and the District of Columbia affirmed the holiday status for their residents. In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The act moved several federal holidays, including Labor Day, to Mondays, and Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday of September ever since.

As a day of celebration the laborer is rewarded with, the tradition of Labor Day has emerged as a day of cook-outs, trips to vacation spots, and just about anything else you can throw in the mix.  Labor Day even marks the end of summer. For those that are working on the fundamental transformation of America towards socialism, Labor Day is the one day of the year that Marx's wage slavery is recognized in America.

The right of workers to form unions has been an important part of our history, but as these unions have become too liberal, too corrupt, or too authoritarian over their members, it is evident that the primary object of labor day, the labor union, has overstayed its welcome in our free society.

Today's unions are aggressively supported by the liberal left, and the politicians use their influence with labor leaders to force rank-and-file union members to support liberal causes and candidates financially, despite the fact that those members may strongly and unequivocally oppose those causes and candidates - that in addition to the liberal impact that unions wield adversely affecting our economic system, demanding rates of pay, benefit packages, and lifetime pensions from corporations that are ultimately unsustainable when it comes to maintaining such demands over the long run.

Government labor unions, like SEIU, have even become thuggish strong-arms of the liberal Democrat Party, using their muscle to influence the vote, and to bully any opposition to progressive policies.

Labor Day was something created with the greatest of intentions, but as designed, the labor movement has become something determined to undermine the private sector, to hinder the free market, and to destroy capitalism.

After all, remember, Labor Day began as the one chance, one day a year, to recognized, and celebrate, communism's favorite son, Karl Marx, and his idea of wage slavery.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one

The Impossible Utopian Dream of the Communists, as provided by the song, "Imagine," by John Lennon

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary