Funny how on Labor Day everyone has the day off except a set of people who could really use a day off: retail workers.
I think it’s important to remember where we came from (and where we might end up again if we’re not attentive.) My husband is from Pittsburgh and Andrew Carnegie’s prints are all over that city — the libraries, the university — and all that philanthropy was built on the backs of the men who toiled in the steel mills, day and night, twelve hours a day, seven days a week. They never had enough time to go to the library.
Karen Marie has posted some good Labor Day reading, including this excerpt from Rerum Novarum:
45. Let the working man and the employer make free agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages; nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well behaved wage-earner. If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accept harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford him no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice.
Isn’t depriving the worker of his just wages one of the sins that cries out to heaven for justice?
Isn’t it sad that there are really no holidays that are sacred anymore? Even grocery stores and gas stations are open on the holiest of all days,so it is hardly (yet sadly) surprising that Labor Day takes a back seat to consumerism thes days.
Recognition for a job well done isn’t as obvious anymore either; I have my Great grandfathers medals for 25 and 30 years worth of service to U.S. Steel (speaking of Pittsburgh),and have been trying to find a shadow box to display them in.You dont really see that sort of thing anymore,do you? Whats happened to our country?
Isn’t it cries out for “vengeance,” which sounds even more intimidating?
Well, my husband is assistant manager of a retail store (musical instruments & sound equipment), and he unexpectedly got Labor Day off when the owner decided he’d rather have a 3-day weekend. It was nice to have one extra day as a family, but that means we’re going to be short one day’s pay plus one day’s commissions. And that’s going to hurt in our current situation.
Sparki — arrrgh — kicking myself for not having remembered that; I was thinking of paid days off, but of course, paid days off are rare indeed for people working retail, especially if their employers do that trick where the employees are officially “part-time” (so no benefits) but still get scheduled 36-39 hours a week.
There’s got to be a way to give people in retail a real break.
Mama Owl — “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.” As usual, your memory is better than mine. The sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance are:
(1) Wilful murder – the blood of Abel, [Gen. 4:10]
(2) The sin of the Sodomites, [Gen. 18:20; 19:13]
(3) The cry of the people oppressed in Egypt, [Ex. 3:7-10]
(4) The cry of the foreigner, the widow and the orphan, [Ex. 20:20-22] and
(5) Injustice to the wage earner. [Deut. 24:14-5; Jas. 5:4]
After reading this thread, I sure am glad my employees got a paid holiday on Monday. Even my part-time pressman got 4 paid hours. Now I’m going to give him a couple more for his birthday. Stay tuned …
Ah, Peony, don’t kick yourself. My husband had an office job up till last January, so we, too, keep forgetting that he doesn’t get paid holidays any more.
I agree, though, that people who work in retail deserve a break. And all people need to be able to make a living wage. Businesses also have to turn a profit, though, and sometimes it seems like these things are at odds.
At least, though, my husband isn’t working for that last boss anymore — the guy who lived in the swank house and drove a swank vehicle and took expensive vacations and gave his wife things like baby grand pianos as gifts while bragging that he paid his staff as little as possible. The current boss at least tries to be fair.