Perspectives: Labor Day 2021
Summary from the AllSides News Team
In addition to marking the summer season's unofficial end, the Labor Day holiday is a day to recognize the U.S. worker's role in keeping the country moving. For media outlets, columnists and pundits, the holiday has different meanings and elicits varying points of view from left and right, especially on the subject of unions. Data from Pew Research Center (Center bias) suggests that as of July 2021, 74% of Democrats and Democrat-leaners say labor unions have a positive effect; just 34% of Republicans and Republican-leaners agree.
Opinions about Labor Day were more common from left- and center-rated writers and news outlets. Many of these praised frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and advocated for the importance of unions and organized labor movements. Some opinions from right-rated outlets criticized unions and their advocates' purported attempts to make Labor Day less about workers and more about unions; these opinions also pointed to data that suggests U.S. union participation is declining. Coverage across the spectrum highlighted the fact that pandemic jobless benefits expire for over 7 million people Monday.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Center
It's Labor Day weekend. Here's the curious truth about the holiday's origins
The weekend leading up to summer's last holiday is here. On Monday, many companies will observe Labor Day by giving employees a day off. The holiday also signals the fashion rule to stop wearing white until spring. But the long weekend is about more than style, sleeping in and barbecues. Did you know that Labor Day has contentious beginnings? In fact, two men with almost the same name fight for credit.
Before you fire up the grill, enjoy summer's final fanfare and maybe even do some shopping for sales this weekend,...
From the Left
This Labor Day, let’s honor the workers who have been on the front lines of the pandemic
“Every single day doing the same thing over and over again, and you just never think there’s going to be an end.” So commented a critical care nurse at a Florida hospital facing a surge in hospitalizations of covid-19 patients. “They are all super sick, intubated, sedated and on their bellies, it’s disheartening,” said another intensive-care nurse. “Tired, overworked and overwhelmed” was how a director of emergency medical services in Florida described hospital staff, reporting “we’re working really hard: working overtime, working late hours and taking on more than normal because we...
From the Right
Workers deserve a day in their honor. The unions that exploit them don’t
Labor Day was never intended as an homage to the organized labor movement.
Unions, of course, vehemently disagree, and while the overwhelming majority of people have come to regard the holiday as nothing more meaningful than a three-day weekend commemorating the end of summer, labor leaders continue to delude themselves that the event somehow validates their dubious ideals and shady tactics.
This would come as a profound surprise to those instrumental in its founding.
For example, Rep. Lawrence McGann, an Illinois Democrat who sat on the House committee that approved the...
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