The Labor Day blues

While many schools are honoring Labor Day by giving students and teachers the day off to reward them for all of their hard work, IU is treating Sept. 7 like any other day.

Classes are in session, homework is due and study topics are being introduced. 

Karen Hanson, IU’s provost and executive vice president, said the decision to conduct classes on Labor Day was strictly because of pressure to maintain symmetry between the spring and fall terms.

I suppose, since students just got back to school a week ago and our homework assignments are to read and comprehend the syllabi, we haven’t worked hard enough yet to deserve a break. After all, Labor Day originated as a holiday to show appreciation for overworked, underpaid, blue-collar workers.

IU students and faculty aren’t exactly overworked or under-appreciated, especially by the hard-labor standards of generations ago.

Our class schedules are a breeze compared to the long, tiring work days of laborers in the 19th century whose efforts sparked the creation of Labor Day.  

You know, the holiday we’re NOT honoring today. 

A man named Peter McGuire advocated for fairer working conditions. Even though he had been employed since he was an 11-year-old paperboy, he was unable to find a job in his trade. The jobs he had were low paying with long hours, and he went on strike in 1872 along with 100,000 other workers to demand shorter workdays.

McGuire later traveled along the East Coast peddling the concept of unions.

As a result, workers in various trades, including those who worked in factories, started to demand certain rights.

McGuire and other workers planned a holiday to honor blue-collar workers. The date was meticulously chosen to fall on the halfway point between Independence Day and Thanksgiving.

That way, just when workers feel themselves growing tired of the nine-to-five grind, they get the gift of a long weekend.

Well, back then it was considered a gift. Now it’s viewed as more of an inconvenience because mail isn’t delivered, and if the toilet is clogged, customers have to wait until Tuesday for the plumber to fix it. 

Though the meaning of Labor Day has changed during the course of the century, it’s important that Americans be aware of the holiday’s origin. 

Sitting in class might seem annoying today while our friends at Purdue University have the day off. So while we are at our desks doodling smiley faces on our academic planners in the slot for Sept. 7, let’s take a moment to remember that we haven’t really earned the right to celebrate Labor Day yet.

As students, we have terrific working conditions. The effort we put forth is given appropriate credit on a grading scale. Our teachers and professors try to be fair and commend us for hard work. If we do good work, we get an A.

It would be nice to have a long weekend, but I’m content only celebrating the holidays we earned – like Columbus Day.

Discovering America was hard work, and now we’re tired. We’ll deserve that day off.