Airline Pilot Central Forums - FDX - We are blue collar workers

On this day, nearly 130 years after the first "Labor Day", as we are engaged in protracted negotiations with our own management for a Collective Bargaining Agreement that fairly rewards us for our contributions to the continued stunning successes of Our Company, I thought it fitting to reflect upon the history of labor in our country and how different our nation might be without the dedication and sacrifice of leaders before us, those willing to fight for workers' rights, for decent, living wages, for working conditions befitting human beings, for retirement and health care benefits, and for workplaces safe and secure for our children and their children.

We are Labor. Yes, we have specialized skills, and our jobs rarely involve physical work. We wear white shirts and fancy ties, and many of us drive fancy cars and live in fancy homes in the same neighborhoods with the white-collar managers of our Company. In fact, many of our number take on white-collar duties when they sign up to work in cubicles and offices and take up The Company's bidding. But when it comes right down to it, in the eyes of our employer, we are nothing more than Employee numbers that cost them money every month. They can hire another Employee number off the street that will do the same thing we do. We are blue-collar, hourly wage earners.

But Our Company cannot succeed without us. We are the backbone of Our Company -- it would not be so wildly successful without our hard work, dedication, and sacrifices throughout the years. We should bear no shame for being compensated well, and no guilt for asking for what we've earned, what we deserve. Couriers, customer service agents, handlers, engineers, mechanics, pilots -- we all deserve to share in the success of Our Company.

I think it's healthy to consider this reality and essential that we embrace the attitude that we are blue collar workers. My success or failure is OUR success or failure. YOUR success or failure is OUR success or failure. Unity is not just a cliché - - it's a fundamental requirement.

Happy Labor Day!

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President Woodrow Wilson (left) with American Federation of Labor President Samuel Gompers (center), and Labor Secretary William B. Wilson at an undated Labor Day rally.

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An illustration of the first Labor Day parade, held on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City. The holiday was organized by the Central Labor Union to exhibit "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, and to host a festival for the workers and their families.

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New York, New Jersey and Colorado were among the first states to approve state legal holidays. In response to support for a national holiday, Sen. James Henderson Kyle of South Dakota introduced a bill to make Labor Day a legal holiday on the first Monday of September each year. It was approved June 28, 1894.

Labor Day: What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Labor Day Legislation

Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From these, a movement developed to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

"The Real Maguire - Who Actually Invented Labor Day?"

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

A Nationwide Holiday

The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.

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