Labor Day offers chance to remember those who fought for rights

By Alonzo Weston

My first memory of work is of my grandmother’s alarm clock going off at 7 a.m. every morning. Faithfully she rose and went off to wash and get dressed and then catch the bus to go her job as a short-order cook at the old Katz drugstore. My mother and aunts would follow her to the same job a few years later.

With meager short-order cook wages, they put our school clothes and Christmases on layaway. They bought our flame-retardant Halloween costumes off the rack at Katz as well.

My grandmother Lena bought our house on those wages. She cooked our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners on those wages and also got us ready for school every year.

My grandmother and mother became well-known for their jobs as cooks and cashiers. My lineage comes from this blue-collar labor. My grandfather was a carpenter and rodeo rider. One uncle was so skilled of a mechanic that he could get off work, take an engine out of his old Pontiac and have it back in and running before bedtime.

For many years before I became a writer for the St. Joseph News-Press I was a blue-collar laborer. I made bread at the old Rainbo bakery, drove railroad spikes for Burlington Northern, plowed snow and ran jackhammers for the state highway department and spooled wire for Wire Rope Corporation, among several other jobs. Even after retiring from the newspaper after 31 years I still bleed blue-collar blue. It is my lineage and in my blood.

I learned to take pride in whatever job I did as I learned honest work disgraces no man.

I saw people in my family and worked with men and women who took pride in their work. At Wire Rope and other jobs, I met men seemingly married to the machines because they cared for their jobs so much.

So for me, Labor Day is more than picnics and cookouts. It’s a dedication and reverence for a way of life. I fought in unions for better wages and working conditions. I went on strike with my brothers and sisters all in the name of labor.

The first Monday in September is recognized nationally as Labor Day. It grew out of the late 19th-century organized labor movement. We must not forget that vacation days, sick time off and child labor laws are a result of organized labor efforts. The perks we take for granted are the fruits of organized labor. So as with Memorial Day when we pay our respect for our fallen soldiers, on Labor Day we pay respect to those who fought for worker’s rights.

When we fire up our grills and hoist our beers. remember those who made the day and our livelihoods possible.