Workers’ Stories, Struggles Behind Labor Day Holiday

Welcome back to The Sunstone Way. 

Next Monday, we are going to take some time to celebrate the workers who make our country, our world, run. 

We call it Labor Day, first created in 1894 as a national holiday. Most of the world celebrates workers on May 1, May Day, but President Grover Cleveland decided to make the first Monday in September the American holiday. 

He did that specifically to get away from May 1, which had been marked by violence as workers protested against poor working conditions. The Haymarket Affair in Chicago (May 4) was a labor rally turned violent, with seven police officers and four workers killed, along with dozens of wounded.

A Journey for Jobs 

Even with a national holiday, American workers in general did not have it good as the country entered the 20^th Century. There was no restriction on child labor, and 12-hour workdays six days a week were common. 

The workplace began to change in 1938 under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As part of the New Deal package, the Fair Labor Standards Act limited child labor, mandated a shorter work week, created a minimum wage and required overtime pay. 

That didn’t automatically result in labor peace – union efforts for better working conditions could be bitter, and violence did happen. But the sense that workers had value continued to grow over the years. 

Economic Reality 

The shift from seeing workers as a necessary evil to a valuable asset has accelerated over the last several decades. I trace part of that attitude to the emphasis on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a way to judge the health of our economy. 

GDP is defined as the value of final goods and services produced in the United States over a period of time. Most economic analysis includes whether the GDP is growing or shrinking, and is defined as a percentage of change. 

Perhaps the most important way the GDP can be impacted positively is the country’s labor productivity – the output per worker per hour worked. When all other factors are equal, higher labor productivity means more goods and services are produced. And that means the GDP is growing.  

Economic Development 

Perhaps more importantly, the economic growth of an area is dependent on job creation. More jobs mean more production – and more salaries putting money into the economy. And most importantly, it means more people who are able to support themselves, their families and their communities. 

Labor, workers succeeding, is key to community well-being. That’s why there has been so much emphasis in recent decades on job training at the local and state level. 

Small Business Labor 

Recently, Dr. Tara Lynn Gray visited Sunstone as the featured speaker for our P3 Strategy Session. Dr. Gray is director of the state Office of the Small Business Advocate, leading the GO-Biz effort to help small businesses succeed and entrepreneurs open new businesses. 

That effort is economic development on the local level. And it is key to California’s most ambitious job creation effort, the California Jobs First Regional Investment Initiative. Dr. Gray says that $600 million program signaled a fundamental shift toward community-led economic development. 

And small businesses lead the way. 

“We (California) are the fourth largest economy in the world now,” Dr. Gray said on the Sunstone stage. “Last year, the number of small businesses went up from 4.2 million to 4.3 million; we’re talking about 7.6 million jobs. And 99% of new jobs came from small businesses.” 

Here At Sunstone 

I would be remiss if I didn’t take this chance to celebrate our own Sunstone labor force. They are my friends and family as well as my coworkers. 

Each and every one invests their time and talent to make our diverse communities better places. They bring value to our entrepreneurial efforts here, and work outside the office to make their community a better place. 

I’m more than happy to celebrate them, and you, this Labor Day. That’s the Sunstone Way! 

And remember, always be a Sunstone.