What Labour Day means to me
Local 1611 of the Laborer's Union ran a series of contests each month through 2022 to encourage member involvement. The theme for September was what Labour Day means: I was born on the first of September, so when I was a kid Labour Day meant that I never went to school on my birthday. As a young adult, Labour Day meant time to sign up for some fall courses: Concrete Repair, or Demolition Cutting Torch, or Non-Violent Social Action. No, the Training Fund did not teach me non-violent social action: that was the Quakers. But every labour course or event I attended always carried the same underlying message: a better world is possible if we work for it. Together. As an old guy, Labour Day is a reminder that we are all part of history. Labour Day in 2022 comes a hundred and fifty years after printers in Toronto went on strike as part of the Nine-Hour Movement. Twenty-four of them were arrested because trade union activity was a "criminal conspiracy". In the political fuss th