Ah, Labour Day weekend, the “official” end of summer and the return of routine.
Normally this week, folks around these parts would be coming off a high from the Shawville Fair with memories of lineups, livestock and for the adults, plenty of libations.
Even before I arrived in Shawville four years, one month and nine days ago (not that I’m counting), my Labour Days were associated with just that: work.
Around this time in 2014, I got hired as . . .
a dishwasher in a busy breakfast spot near Algonquin College, where I was going to school. With no prior experience, my first solo shift was on the holiday Monday in a place that could seat nearly 300 people for brunch (and would flip every one of those tables multiple times in a morning). Eight hours, dozens of garbage bags and several thousand dirty dishes later, I emerged from my trial by fire with a new perspective on the restaurant business. They are busiest on the holidays and weekends, when everyone else is enjoying a day off. I dedicate this editorial to all the dishwashers, cooks and servers who were out there slinging plates (or takeout boxes) this past long weekend. While I might not miss smelling like grease and dishwater, I do miss the people and the hectic energy of a good four or five hour breakfast rush.
Working in restaurants or the media isn’t similar at the surface level, but they are alike in many ways. The pay is terrible, the hours are awful and your coworkers are typically a bunch of maladjusted degenerates.
Working on a holiday isn’t really a hardship, it’s just a day in the calendar like any other (though the extra pay is nice). Health care workers and other essential services all have to do the same and their duties are much more difficult than reading and writing.
While nowadays, the first weekend in September is about closing out the summer with campfires, water sports and booze, it was originally a day celebrating workers banding together to improve their conditions.
Back in 1872, the Toronto Typographical Union threatened a strike to demand a nine hour work day from 12 hours, a notion that was scoffed at by their employers as “foolish,” “absurd,” and “unreasonable,” according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
They followed through with their threat on March 15 and garnered widespread sympathy. On April 15, a crowd of 10,000 people marched on Queen’s Park in support of the striking workers.
The bosses fought back hard. You see, union activity was considered a crime in those days, so the owner of the Globe newspaper (a predecessor to the Globe and Mail) at the time, George Brown, took the organizers to court for “conspiracy”.
It just so happened that Brown had a powerful rival in Sir John A. MacDonald, the (in)famous drunken Scotsman whose sordid legacy has made headlines in recent weeks. Smelling blood in the water, MacDonald quickly passed the Trades Unions Act in June of that year, which offered limited protections for workers and secured a win over his political opponent.
Labour Day wasn’t made an official holiday until 1894 (in traditional Canadian fashion, copying an American movement) and significant progress has been made since then, but it’s good to remember why this day is marked in the calendar. Those previously mentioned and many other organizations advocated for humane work conditions and stood up to the power brokers of their day. A little more than a century later, this history is crucial to understanding the so-called “gig economy”.
Silicon Valley techies making billions by exploiting gaps in legislation with their apps is the current front line of labour politics. This past weekend is a reminder that we can do better in our pursuit of dignity and fairness for the people that keep our country going.
Caleb Nickerson
