How Many Days Do We Really Need?

Today is Labor Day in the US, and Labour Day in Canada – a day to recognize the contributions of labor (and labor unions) to the country’s economy. 

It has been a federal holiday in the US since 1887.  It was intentionally put at the opposite end of the calendar to make it distinct from International Workers’ Day – May 1st - which was the day of choice for communists and anarchists, and is celebrated in over 80 countries around the world.

You might think one day – either Labor Day or May Day, depending on where you live – should be enough, but now we are seeing ads on TV promoting the third Friday of September as National Tradesmen Day.  The second annual Tradesmen Day is this September 21st.

National Tradesmen Day is the brainchild of Irwin Tools.  If you’d never heard of them before they started their current ad campaign for Tradesmen Day, that’s OK.  You are probably familiar with some of their brands, like Vice-Grip, or with their parent company, Newell Rubbermaid.

According to Irwin,  National Tradesmen Day is set aside to honor the skilled tradesmen in the country who do all the manual labor that many of us can’t do for ourselves. People like auto mechanics, plumbers, roofers, carpenters, drywall installers, electricians, HVAC technicians, and welders.

There’s a shortage of such skilled workers, and “skilled trades” is the number one category of the hardest jobs to fill in the country. Some blame the decline of vocational and technical education and the steady focus we’ve had on 4-year university education.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that over a third of skilled tradesmen today are over 50. For every three tradesmen who retire, there’s only one younger person with the skills to do their kind of work.

With a need for skilled labor, and the number of college grads who can’t find work, a day like Tradesmen Day  might be a good idea, and maybe Irwin Tools deserves some credit for promoting it.

On the other hand, there is at least a small amount of cynicism involved. In 2008 Irwin closed its plant in DeWitt, Nebraska. Vise-Grip locking pliers and other tools had been made there for 80 years, but  employees were told that the parent company had to move production to China “to keep the Vise-Grip name competitive.” About 300 people lost their jobs.