Not to be a Scrooge, but despite cheery carols bringing tidings of comfort and joy, Christmas is a pretty stressful time of year for a lot of workers; I’m thinking about the retail workers whose stores opened at midnight on Thanksgiving to get a jump on Black Friday. Or the postal workers and letter carriers slammed with the last-minute holiday rush.
Then there’s Santa Claus. You know him as a jolly fellow bearing gifts but he actually began hundreds of years ago as a monk named St. Nicholas who gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. And if you stop and consider Santa’s modern incarnation of delivering gifts overnight worldwide to everyone’s home, doesn’t that sound a lot like Amazon? It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Amazon makes its workers wear elf hats while they dash madly about those huge warehouses. But there I go channeling Scrooge again. On this week’s Labor History Today podcast, professor Kathy Newman argues that it was the working class that invented Christmas and many of the traditions that are associated with the holiday season. You can find Labor History Today wherever you listen to podcasts, just search for Union City Radio. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1910, a dynamite bomb destroyed a portion of the Llewellyn Ironworks in Los Angeles, where a bitter strike was in progress. Today’s labor quote is by Kathy Newman, from the Labor History Today podcast "So many Christmas stories are about capitalism and are about work and are often about some kind of hard-hearted employer. Having a change of heart and seeing the light, uh, getting into the Christmas spirit and realizing that people actually need to rest during the holidays." Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. They’ve got a credit card with 24/7 U.S.-based phone customer service, competitive rates, AND exclusive benefits for union members. Join 700,000 union members who’re using the Union Plus Credit Card Program. Find out more at theunioncard.com.
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