Grand Lakes Newsletter For September Of 2021
Happy Labor Day! Hello Fall!
Dear Editor and News from the HOA
Newsletter Article Deadline Dates - Newsletter articles are due by the 20th of the month for the upcoming issue. Newsletter article deadlines are:
- November 2021 - due 9/21
- December 2021 - due 10/21
Labor Day, celebrated in the United States and also in Canada, have been held on the first Monday in September. The holiday originates in 1887, where in Oregon it was first celebrated. However, its roots are older and related to the wider international efforts by workers to celebrate a holiday. These worker movements were also affiliated with leftist political action, which has shaped the choosing of the date in the United States. The complex, often political history, of Labor Day has also shifted in recent periods.
The development of Labor Day developed through the history of the development of labor unions that arose as early as the late 18th century, particularly as factories and the Industrial Revolution began. With the rise and increasing growth of industrial development in the United States, labor unions increased in membership and, by extension, influence throughout the mid-19th century. This was not unique to the United States, as countries in Europe began to have workers organize and at times begin to conduct protests or even strikes.
One major development in the mid-19th century was the increasing demand for consumer products and infrastructure, which led to increasing demands on factories, leading to growth that was fueled by unregulated labor markets. The supply of labor was plentiful as populations expanded, but this also meant that child labor and very long hours (12 or more per day) were typical. Average workers, despite working often 7-day weeks for more than 10 hours per day, often only just made enough to feed their families and keep their homes. In the United States and elsewhere, the second half of the 19th century saw increasing labor strikes protesting wages and often conditions, where sweatshop-like conditions often existed. With labor unions increasing in size, strikes became more effective in creating major disruptions to the economy, likely leading to eventual conflict with the authorities.
May 1st was, from ancient origins, a festival day, often associated as a celebration for spring. This day was used by labor activists, socialists and other labor proponents as a day to celebrate labor and its contribution to society. The events were also used as demonstrations against work conditions in factories.
In Chicago, in 1886, May 1st was celebrated as a day calling for the 8 hour workday. On May 4, 1886, in Haymarket Chicago, an organized demonstration, also calling for an 8 hour work day and protesting earlier police killings of protestors, turned violent occurred. A bomb was thrown into the crowd and, combined with subsequent gunfire by police, several police and demonstrates were killed. Interestingly, it was in Europe that saw this event as being influential to the International Workers Conference in 1889 that called for annual demonstrations on May 1st to commemorate the events of the Haymarket event. In 1891, May Day (May 1st) became recognized as the official day to recognize labor. In the United States, the event of Haymarket was highly negative to the authorities, while also it made them wary of the increasing power of organized labor.
The 8 hour workday, which is what the Haymarket demonstrates originally wanted, did eventually come to the United States. First, at local and company levels by the 1880s-1890s, but recognized through federal laws such as the Adamson Act in 1916. Many of the core reasons for strikes faded, although strikes often did reoccur as abuses were evident and economic hardships returned. Labor Day increasingly began to be associated as an end of summer holiday. Stores and markets began to use the event to market products. Schools began to organize their calendars around the Labor Day weekend, choosing to resume classes in the first Tuesday, although many still begin slightly earlier. As it is seen as the end of summer, it is also seen as the transition period for autumn sports and activities.
Scholars also debate that declaring Labor Day in September, rather than in May, as it is celebrate now in many countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, has helped avoid more extremist acts in the United States. Trade Unions, for a time, became relatively powerful but also steered organized labor in the United States away from more socialist and later Communist movements that spread in some countries in the 20th century. To this day, many people in the United States have disassociated the radical influences that occurred in the late 19th century on the creation of Labor Day in part because of the date being established in September and possibly less linked, symbolically, to the May Day celebrations.
Although Labor Day today is a Federal holiday, it is not mandated that all or most workers have the day off. Nevertheless, most employers in the United States recognize it as a holiday, although they are not required to make it a paid holiday. The ideas of Labor Day have not completely disappeared. It still holds significance particularly for those calling for increased minimum wage and other perceived injustice, although organized labor is far less influential today than in the late 19th century. This includes labor equality and calling for equal pay for men and women for similar roles.
Most official holidays in our calendar commemorate national or religious events. Labor Day is a product of the Industrial Revolution, when organized labor and more radical movements began to organize against often appalling working conditions and low wages. The late 19th century witnessed several violent episodes where strikes were put down or economic disruption occurred. While many of the violent movements were put down, it was recognized something must be done to appease increasingly organized labor movements.
With improved economic conditions, many forgot the reasons for why the day became established and today have mostly a symbolic meaning in the United States as the end of summer. Questions/comments: email - Carla Brownlee at girls1900@aol.com.
HOA Board Meetings
Grand Lake’s monthly HOA Board meetings take place every 4th Monday of the month at 6 PM on Zoom due to Covid-19. Log on to www.grandlakeslife.com or TownSq for up to date Zoom meeting information/invite as dates and times are subject to change. Please check Grandlakeslife.com under Upcoming Events for HOA Board Meetings. All residents of Grand Lakes are invited to attend the HOA Board meetings each month. Homeowners are encouraged to attend the monthly meetings to hear important updates or projects that will occur or happen in Grand Lakes. Homeowners can also voice their concerns to their elected HOA Board Members about deed restrictions, community facilities that are in need of repair or anything else you would like to see your elected HOA Board members address or resolve.
