A New Kind of Labor in America

Yes, I know the subject of this blog is anti-aging gastronomy, but if you have been following me, you know that on special occasions and holidays, I must digress and get on my soap box.  It is the only chance I have to do so , since all of my other writing gigs are ghostwriting for which I cannot take credit.  So, here is my Labor Day soap box!

This Monday, September 3, will be celebrated around the nation with picnics, beach parties and parades as has become the customary way to celebrate an American and Canadian holiday we know as Labor Day.  For most, it is the celebration that marks the last weekend of summer and the return to school.  But for many of us who grew up in communities where blue collar workers with barely a high school education were able to feed their family of four and provide a decent roof over their head, it is a day to reflect on the state of the American manufacturing industry, an industry which from 1978 to 2007 suffered a loss of jobs in textiles, garments, metals and electronics topping 60 percent, jobs given to foreign competition. 

Labor Day which became a national holiday in 1894 began as a coming together of union workers to show solidarity.  Ironically, the very same labor unions that were formed for the protection of those workers, has all but made them extinct.  To see what unions have done to our manufacturing industry over the last thirty years one has only to drive through any abandoned industrial park in any city.  Never again will those broken buildings  be home to American manufacturers of leather goods, textiles, steel or electronic gadgetry. 

Private sector business growth is tied to profitability.  With profit comes business growth and with business growth comes economic prosperity in the form of additional human resource requirements, added technology, more machinery, research and development, engineering design and expanded supply chains.  The bottom line is that unionized workers have a profoundly negative impact--- on the bottom line, not just in terms of compensation and benefits, but also in terms of job performance where bad performers are protected, and in the uncertainty that comes with walk outs and strikes.  Furthermore, as in the case with the U.S. automakers, when times are bad, union workers still demand the same compensation and benefits as when times are good.  As was the case with GM and Chrysler, bankruptcy is the only way out. 

So, what do those of us celebrate now, those of us who have been raised in households where along with Memorial Day and Fourth of July, Labor Day was celebrated with patriotic music and gatherings of steelworkers, sewers, pressman, autoworkers, and machinists who bragged about their college educated kids?  Well, I for one still crank up John Phillip Sousa for all the neighbors to hear, and raise the red, white and blue, not only in remembrance of our forefathers who labored to make this the greatest country in the world, but also to celebrate a different type of laborer.  I celebrate the mothers who labor first with birth followed by years of balancing two careers, to trash collectors, plumbers, stylists and carpenters, to ditch diggers, salesmen and bankers, and to all of the  service-workers who suffer greatly, getting by on minimum wage.  But most of all I celebrate the small business owners who labor 60 to 70 hours a week to make their payroll and plant the seeds of all private enterprise.

EAT SMART, America!

Buon Appetito e Buona Salute, Chef AngelaB

In addition to my blog, you can now read more of my culinary “bytes” at www.oliveoiltimes.com

EAT SMART, AMERICA, AN ANTI-AGING DIET PRIMER  $ 2.99 is available now for Kindle on Amazon  and for Nook at Barnes & Noble