What does Labor Day mean to you?  For many it is a day of barbeques and a day off.   So how did this day originate and how can you better appreciate and acknowledge those in the labor and trades?  Ironically for my favorite laborer, he is still working on Labor Day, true to the nature of the hardworking individuals who call themselves laborers.   

In Seattle, Johnathan Borofsky’s Hammering Man labors tirelessly every day.  Every day, that is, except the first Monday of September.  That is when this laborer and many others have a day off to recognize the American worker.  This moving structure measures 48 feet tall and weighs in at approximately 22,000 pound and his long powerful swing brings down his hammer at a rate of two and a half times per minute.  What is more impressive than this artistically rendered tool wielding skill is the men and women of the working classes that it represents.  During the Industrial Revolution it was not easy to be in the working-class in America and the origins of these unsafe, low paying, twelve-hour days, seven-days a week called for action.  The actions were taken and strikes occurred, but it was not until a bloody dispute in the streets of 1894 Chicago between the federal government and railroad workers and unions that Congress got legislation passed to honor the worker and address these concerns.   

What does it mean to take a day off from labor, how can we remember and fight for worker’s rights?  As you look at the ways you are celebrating the holiday, mostly unconcerned with work.  Remember and reflect upon what labor means to you?