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Midterm elections

Labor Day

So much more than an end-of-summer bash

Aunty Jean

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Photo by Pop & Zebra on Unsplash

Labor Day. A three-day weekend in the US. The last big party of the summer. A day to honor those who labor. It’s good to see people enjoying themselves.

Of course, there are those who have to work on Labor Day — doctors, nurses, police and firefighters. Most of these people receive extra pay for working the holidays.

But more and more workers are working on holidays and not getting a little extra in their paychecks. The person ringing up your Labor Day Sale items, the person working in the liquor store or grocery store, the janitors cleaning these buildings, the servers in the restaurants. There is no holiday pay for many of them. Most of them are working for minimum wage.

The United States is the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers paid holidays, which means that one in four American workers don’t get any paid holidays.

Labor activists suffered, and died, for many of the things we take for granted in the US, like a 40-hour work week, safety regulations in factories, and an end to child labor.

Eugene V. Debs organized the

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