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When I was hired at my current job 16 years ago, my new boss tried to get me to sign an overtime waiver. "Why would I do that?" I asked
"So you can work 12 hour shifts" she replied.
"Why would I do that?" I asked.
"So you can work fewer days" she replied.
"My ancestors died for the eight hour shift" I said. "I will not betray their sacrifice by signing a no-overtime waiver to work 12-hour shifts"
At the time, my labor was needed, and I got the job without signing.
But to simply "celebrate" labor without recalling the dreams and struggles of our ancestors, is betraying them.
With our multiple labor saving machines, our labor should be less!
We need to decide what we need and divide the work among those able. This is what our ancestors fought for. The eight hour day, the five day week, the abolition of child labor; those were stations on the way to full employment for all, with the sharing of the wealth among all!
Labor Day is the US government, always in tandem with the ruling class, diverting US workers from the holiday they invented - May Day, the international working people's holiday!
We need to honor our ancestors and their struggle by fighting for a world in which we live sustainable and peacefully with other humans and animals on this beautiful planet.
