Since Adam and Eve were banished from Paradise, mankind has been doomed to work for his upkeep. As God declared in Genesis, “In the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread.”
Many generations after their Fall, men worked for a living in difficult, dangerous and distressing conditions until the first Industrial Revolution of the 18th century. Labor started organizing trade unions to seek protection, fair wages, comfort and safer working conditions in the workplace.
In contemporary times, while there have been great improvements in working conditions through regulations, best practices and enlightened relationships between workers and employers, unionism of varying political persuasions and financial interests continued to flourish, demanding more benefits, more freedom, more control of the business, and more of everything.
Some even advocated Karl Marx’s vision of a classless society where workers and employers were to be made equally and miserably poor for easy control by a central body. But Marx’s utopian dream, apart from being disproved by history, was largely repudiated by the free world and progressive union leaders as workers, employers and governments collectively embraced the principle of Tripartism.
Some workplaces may still be less than ideal but a vast majority are now in a state where a healthy, peaceful and symbiotic coexistence dominates the relationship between labor and employers under the nurturing care of concerned democratic governments. Tripartism has become a model of collaboration where people engage each other as partners rather than adversaries, where negotiation replaces confrontation, and cooperation instead of conflict.
The despised sweatshops of the past are now a distant memory and if there are a few still operating they are clandestine, illegal, shamed and denounced. Today, tripartism serves as a stabilizing force, tempering extreme demands while recognizing legitimate grievances.
Ironically, a number of workers celebrate Labor Day by not working and joining street protests with some exaggerated grievances against real and imagined abuses in the workplace. All these are echoes of the long and painful history of labor struggles.
Labor Day originated in America in the 19th century in a carnival-like parade cum protest that ended in violence when a bomb exploded amid the festivities that killed policemen and workers. The perpetrators were caught and executed.
The whole world took notice of this tragic event in Chicago known as the Haymarket Affair and it became the symbol of workers’ fight for an eight-hour workday instead of 16, a five-day work week instead of seven, and safer and more humane working conditions.
All these demands were largely secured over time through negotiations and progressive laws but, unfortunately, they triggered an insatiable and endless desire by a few aggressive labor groups for excessive and unreasonable benefits beyond the capacity of employers to give.
Today, there are two contrasting symbols of Labor Day being observed. First, by the free world with fiery speeches and slogans by labor leaders for the emancipation of the “exploited” working class; and second, by communist and dictatorial regimes in a contrived display of state power and control over the workers whose attendance is mandatory, where dissent is silenced, and a rigidly scripted ritual of obedience is followed by an indoctrinated “happy” working class.
Routinely, socialist countries engage in propaganda on Labor Day, but in the Philippines local copycats mimic their style to display their control over the movement and make it a platform to recruit new members or to stay relevant. This year’s holiday coincides with the national elections and partylist candidates of the labor sector will use the occasion to campaign.
Some labor leaders disregard the true spirit of the holiday and forget that May 1 is a day to honor the workers, the engine of society, and a remembrance of their past struggles for dignity, fairness and justice in the workplace. Worthily, the Catholic Church honors the workers’ aspirations and the spirit of Labor Day by declaring May 1 the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
To the workers of the world, the dreamers, doers, nation builders and union leaders, the First of May belongs to you.
Happy Labor Day!