Among the many things I will ponder this holiday weekend: the weather, El Niño, when the specialty craft beer movement will move on for good, what Third Avenue will finally look like when street renovation is complete — a pretty and narrow avenue with lots of vibrant, new and exciting businesses along the strip or a pretty and narrow avenue with lots of hold over and hodge podge businesses from decades ago along the strip? — the cost of water and how conservation can be costly to ratepayers, books, libraries, a South County four-year university, housing, jobs, career and life choices.
Those last two topics will probably niggle me a bit more than the others.
Not long ago — actually, it was a long time ago, back to the days of pre-Internet when newspapers were delivered to porches rather than in-boxes — it seemed like print journalism was a solid career choice. There was job security (people would always want to know what’s going on in the world) and a liveable wage that made it seem like a smart plan for the future. Plus the fact that it did not involve back-breaking work was an added bonus.
It was a few summers spent digging ditches and busting my hump that convinced me of finding easier ways of making a buck, hence going to college.
But here we are in the Information Age where news is abundantly distributed via wifi and tablets instead of on paper and news organizations conglomerate and cut staff to reach the bottom line.
As for those who stuck with construction or other trade jobs and pursued lifelong careers via unions? They have struggled as well, but when they are working their quality of life has flourished.
We have the labor movement to thank for this upcoming three-day holiday that will be enjoyed across the country. It was for the collective efforts of manufacturing and trade laborers that recognition was bestowed upon the people who propped up the American economy. The labor movement made possible the middle class and the notion of achieving the American Dream.
But you have to wonder how much longer the significance of Labor Day will be with us.
With manufacturers increasingly shipping jobs overseas or automating their production, with vitriol and blame for debt and municipal struggle placed at the feet of unions and their members, and with a growing penchant for embracing nifty tech advances such as automated servers at restaurants or self-checkout lines at stores eliminating the need for human workers, will the backbone of the economy wither away? Will the middle class shrink and the have-somes be lumped into the haves or have-nots.
What would this country be like without unionized labor and its equity movement? Would we have this upcoming holiday to ponder those things? Probably not.
