Happy Labor Day, suckahs

Via Kathy at Birmingham Blues, and Susie over at Suburban Guerrilla, I get this happy little piece of news: the recess appointment of Paul deCamp to head the Wage & Hour Division at the Dept of Labor. He'd been nominated for the post, but the Senate hadn't yet confirmed him, so he's in on a recess appointment.

This guy's a lawyer with a lot of experience representing management -- he's defended Wal-Mart, among others -- but not so much experience on the workers' rights end of things. Except as regards, you know, helping management subvert said rights, or at least stretch them to the breaking point.

The Wage & Hour Division, in case you're wondering, is the unit that enforces overtime, workplace discrimination, and child-labor laws.

It's the timing of an appointment like this -- right before Labor Day -- that really seems cynical to me. The actual appointment doesn't really surprise me in the least.

According to Wikipedia's entry on the subject, Labor Day has been celebrated as a Federal Holiday on the 1st Monday in September since the 1880s, despite some rumblings to adopt May 1 as Labor Day -- the date which happens to be celebrated as Labour Day in the rest of the world.

Apparently it was believed that a May 1 holiday would be seen as aligning the U.S. with internationalist (or even, horrors, socialist!) movements. In the wake of Chicago's Haymarket riots in May of 1886, Pres. Grover Cleveland made the September date official, very likely at least in part to discourage the sort of political demonstrations that take place around the world on May Day (which also, of course, has pagan underpinnings).

The original U.S. Labor Day Parade in 1882, which was organized by the Knights of Labor, had a loose affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, according to Howard Zinn in "A People's History of the United States," which was another reason the more progressive sorts favored the May 1 holiday date.

This watered-down version of a day commemorating the efforts and historical struggles of workers is generally celebrated here in the U.S. with picnics, barbecues, and family gatherings, or as a day for shopping at hyped-up markdown sales where you can get fabulous deals on crap manufactured overseas in sweatshops by children, among other things.

[PS: There's a bit more here on the history of labor unions in the U.S., if you're interested.]

[PPS: and a lovely piece over here at digby's place, also via Suburban Guerrilla.]