For 111 years, the United States and Canada have honored their countries’ workers on the first Monday in September. Historians generally acknowledge that the first formal celebration of U.S. workers was marked by a New York City union parade on Sept. 5, 1882.
While Canada’s union leaders had held similar parades for at least 10 years before the Big Apple festival, U.S. lawmakers beat their northern counterparts by almost a month in declaring Labor Day a national holiday. That vote came June 28, 1894.
These days, Labor Day in the U.S. is less a celebration of workers and the joys of an honest paycheck than it is an occasion to fire up the grill and mark summer’s unofficial end.
But the holiday was born in the drive to improve working conditions among our forebears, so here are 10 suggestions on how to honor work even as you take a break from it.
Mining was and is hard and dangerous work. It also was vital to the development of Colorado and the West. Get a feel for the job by taking an underground tour of the Phoenix Gold Mine, billed as Colorado’s oldest continuously operated gold mine. It is 2 miles outside Idaho Springs. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission $5-$10; gold panning is $5. Call 303-567-0422. Take Exit 239 off Interstate 70 at Idaho Springs; turn left on Colorado Boulevard and then right on Stanley Road to Trail Creek Road, then turn left.
The Ludlow Massacre was a defining point in this country’s labor movement. On April 20, 1914, Colorado National Guard troops fired on and set fire to a tent city that housed striking miners and their families. Eighteen people died. A memorial statue of a miner and his wife and child stands on the site. Ludlow is about 1 1/2 miles west of Interstate 25, 14 miles northwest of Trinidad. A highway sign notes the exit.
Few people were more important to building the West than the men who put down railroad tracks and guided the trains. Share their story at the Colorado Railroad Museum, 17155 W. 44th Ave., Golden. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is $4-$7. Call 303-279-4591.
Help is available for people who have no labor to return to Tuesday. Check out
venturi-staffing.com/mistakes.shtml for 25 job interview tips. Some, such as don’t chew gum or drink booze at lunch, are self-evident. But a reminder never hurts.
Studs Terkel’s book “Working” is a classic look at what U.S. workers do and how they feel about it. Grab a copy and read about jobs from actor to sanitation truck driver.
Enjoy some labor laughs with your children by watching “Fun on the Job!” a Walt Disney Cartoon Classics release. It features Goofy, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck putting in a day’s work as an elephant cleaner, tower clock cleaner and magician.
You know you have a bad boss. But do you know if he is a narcissistic or whip cracker, chair tosser or a ballistic critic? Read true stories about such bosses at employeesurveys
.com/bosses/bossstories.htm. You also can click another link to read about good bosses. But what’s the fun in that?
The hardest labor of all is childbirth. Visitors to the Hall of Life at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd., can see a baby’s different stages of development. They also can enjoy interactive heath exhibits, analyze their fitness, find out their stress levels and more. Hours are 9 a.m. 5 p.m. Admission is $6-$10. Call 303-322-7009.
Chick sexer, sewer inspector, roadkill cleaners, bat-cave scavenger and worm-dung farmer are among the jobs examined during seven straight hours of the Discovery Channel series “Dirty Jobs.” The first episode begins at 11 a.m. on Channel 11 in Denver.
Hanna-McEuen plays Taste of Colorado, Colfax Avenue at Broadway, at 1:30 p.m. today. Admission is free (303-571-8200). These musicians work hard, but it helps to have parents in the biz: The duo, cousins Jaime Hanna and Jonathan McEuen, are the sons of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band co-founders Jeff Hanna and John McEuen.
Staff writer Ed Will can be reached at 303-820-1694 or ewill@denverpost.com.
