This may come as a surprise, but Labor Day isn’t just the unofficial end of summer, or the last day it’s acceptable to wear white, or the day to score a great deal on a mattress.Chances are you’re not working on Labor Day, which itself is one of the greatest testaments to the holiday, and the movement from which it sprang. In fact, we owe a debt of gratitude to the labor movement for most of the benefits we receive from working.How’d you like to work 61 hours a week? That was average back in 1870 before the labor movement began. Then in the 1880s labor organizers set a goal of an eight hour workday to begin on May 1, 1886. It took years of struggle, but eventually the eight hour day became standard.Of course 61 hours isn’t too bad, because that means 21 hours overtime, right? Wishful thinking, buddy. Overtime is another labor movement accomplishment.And those two days off before Labor Day, those are called the weekend. A quick check of the Oxford English Dictionary shows ten quotes from written material using the word “weekend.” Nine of those ten came from 1870 or later. That can’t possibly be a coincidence.These days kids in America go to school until they’re about eighteen years old. A hundred years ago or so, it was common for kids to be part of the labor force. And I’m not talking about the sixteen-year-old kid bagging your groceries. I’m talking about a nine-year-old kid working in a coal mine separating impurities from chunks of coal. It took forty years for the labor movement to outlaw breaker boys and child labor, so who knows how long it would have taken without unions.Some of labor’s accomplishments are less obvious. The labor movement and unions had great influence on the Civil Rights movement, the Social Security Act, OSHA, and, more recently, the Family and Medical Leave Act.It’s become en vogue in recent decades to trash unions. They’re responsible for the deep budget deficits found in many states, union workers are lazy, unions themselves are corrupt. We’ve forgotten just how much our lives—not just our jobs, but our lives—are indebted to unions and the labor movement.Would you like to work twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for a miniscule hourly wage? Thanks to unions you don’t have to.Would you like to go to work every day and never know whether you might die because your workplace is unsafe? Thanks to unions you don’t have to.Would you like to work in a place where workers are viewed as nothing but commodities, and have no say in how they’re treated? Thanks to unions you don’t have to.Of course unions aren’t perfect. There is some justification for the criticism. Some of the leaders are corrupt. Some of the workers are lazy. But that’s not because they’re union. It’s because they’re human.For most of us, the lives we live today can be directly traced back to the people who struggled for workers’ rights. Some people died for those rights. In places like Haymarket, Pullman, Republic Steel—all of which have strong ties to Chicago—workers helped secure the rights and benefits that we enjoy today. I’m off work today because of the hard work and sacrifice they made so many years ago.So when we’re enjoying our end-of-summer picnics, and finding great deals on furniture, cars, and whatever else, we should take a moment to remember why the day exists in the first place. We should remember the people who paved the way for us to live the lives we live, the people who saw wrong and tried to right it.And it wouldn’t hurt to think of those people who still work in difficult conditions today. People who aren’t paid enough; people who still risk their lives, even with safety regulations; people who work, and struggle, and fight every single day, and still have trouble making ends meet. People who work on Labor Day.It’s called Labor Day because it was difficult, and it hasn’t become much easier.By the way, if you like what you're reading here, you should like my Facebook page, Brett Baker Writes.You should subscribe to this blog, don't you think? That way you'll never forget to come back. Forgetting is bad. So why don't you just type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. I'm not going to send you a bunch of junk, and you can ditch me any time you want.