For working people and union members, Labor Day stands for something special and profound. It's a day to honor the deep commitment each of us has to serve the children we teach, the families we heal, and the communities we love. ~Randi Weingarten.

From Wikipedia

Statement by the Prime Minister on Labour Day

Ottawa, Ontario
September 4, 2017

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on Labour Day:

“On Labour Day, we celebrate the many accomplishments of Canada’s labour movement. For more than a century, Canadians have come together to fight for a safer, more equitable, and just workplace. Their hard-won victories brought about fair wages, weekends, and paid sick days, among many other benefits and protections we take for granted today. The discipline and dedication of organized labour continue to build our country and lay the foundation for one of the strongest middle classes in the world.

“Our government was elected on a promise to grow the middle class, and pave the way for more Canadians to have a real and fair chance at success. We have taken great strides to prepare Canadians for the changing economy, and create good, middle class jobs from coast-to-coast-to-coast. 

“Over the past year, we introduced measures to relieve the pressures adults face when deciding to go back to school, made it easier for Canadians on EI to obtain new certificates and training, and helped hundreds of thousands of low- and middle-income students pay their tuition. We also launched the union-based apprenticeship training program, and established agreements to expand affordable, high quality child care across the country.

“In the coming months, we will update laws to better support Canadian workers as they seek to balance the responsibilities of work and family. Targeted amendments to the Canada Labour Code will give federally-regulated employees the right to request more flexible work arrangements, such as the ability to work from home, and provide unpaid leave for family responsibilities.

“We continue to work closely with organized labour to protect and promote workers’ rights, and affirm the vital role unions play in helping the middle class grow and prosper. We recently passed Bill C-4, restoring a fair and balanced approach to federal labour relations, and ratified the International Labour Organization’s Convention 98, recognizing workers’ right to collectively bargain. We also pledged to ban the manufacture, import, export and use of asbestos in Canada by 2018, and renewed our commitment to ensure the Westray Law is applied effectively and negligent employers are held responsible.

“Organized labour has a strong partner in the Government of Canada. We will continue to stand up for the middle class and invest in Canada’s hardworking, creative, and diverse workforce. Since December 2015, Canada’s unemployment rate has dropped from 7.1 per cent to 6.3 per cent. In the last year, the Canadian economy has created almost 400,000 new jobs. Today, we celebrate Canada’s workers and labour movement who made this progress possible.

 “On behalf of the Government of Canada, Sophie and I wish all Canadians a safe and happy Labour Day.” 

 Thank you Lady and Sir.  Right back at you and all you hold dear:

Stanley Wira - Ruta Wira 

Yesterday, I was speaking with Roy from the VCBC and asked him if he knew what not wearing white after labour day was all about.  He told me that only the very rich used to wear white.  White clothes were high maintenance and demanded a lot of attention while cleaning in the workers end.  For the sake of the servants, the masters and mistresses stopped wearing white after labour day to give the workers a break.  I have never heard of such a consideration of a worker by employer.  Kinda like....I don't know like what.  Like an employer hiring you despite your mental and physical disabilities.

The idea I get from the story is that the high class people, made it easier for their laundry workers by not wearing white after labour day.  It sounds like great thinking.  It would be amazing if rich people came up with ideas to help the workers today.  For example, increase wages by a certain % every labour day.  Increase by .50 cents even.  After a certain level of pay has been reached depending on ones duties, the wage can be capped.

The thing I know for sure is the labour day is about work and working and employers and workers.  Their rights and their and freedoms.  Wage.

It may not count and I started working in my household around age 5.  I am the second born and first born girl.  My only sister who became my helper later on is 3 years younger than me. We had to give her some time to grow. With a mentally ill mother and a working father, I embraced hard work.  Peeling potatoes with a knife since age 5.  Cleaning the hardwood floors, tending to my siblings.  Mum had 7 children in 11 years.  I was counting.  And a miscarriage.  That means by the time I was 11 years old, our last born showed up.  Mum gave birth at 17, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26 and 31!  She had a kid when I was 2, 3, 5, 6 and 11. She needed any help she could get with the children. Two of my brothers are less than a year apart.  I was ready.  That meant bathing them, washing their clothes, folding their clothes, as I grew older I would cook.  Sometimes we had adult helpers of whom I remember bringing far more harm into the household.

My first paid job was as a merchandise girl.  I remember taking home bags of grocery.  I bought a friend of my mum drinking glasses.  My main job was with the University of Nairobi in my mid twenties.  I had my own child at age 22.  Before this job, I had worked the streets for as little as Kenya shillings (KES) 100.  It was real survival.  When I started working at the University, I was making KES 8000 a month which was about 100$ a month, Canadian.  I thought I died and went to Heaven.  We lived pay cheque to pay cheque.  When it was time to come to Canada, I had zero money.  My dad gave me his last USA $50.  On arrival to Canada, I was surprised that the International AIDS Conference gave delegates from out of the country an allowance of $335.  Now I had $385.

After cleaning houses without a permit and being detained by the then Citizenship and Immigration Canada, I was found to be mentally ill.  I could not get a work permit without a job, and could not get a job without a work permit.  Shida!  I started getting an allowance of $546 a month in 1999.  It was called hardship allowance.  Canada cared/cares.  In my head, the $100 a month I was earning in Kenya in 1996 became $546 a month.  You would be walking tall if you were me.  As my teacher Sister Colette said, "Life is all in the way you look at it."

We are talking a $446 a month increment.  This is a different continent that cares for and values its people.  I speak more for Canada because I lived it gratefully for 21 years. My full disability allowance came by in 2010 after I was granted permanent residence.  It shot up to around $800 a month.  Meaning that the $100 I was earning at the University in Kenya, had gone up by $700!  In all these, I see a willing Creator.   To most people it is a disability allowance, to me it was an increment, a miracle.  I did learn that one can work and still be on disability.  This kudos to Canada, in particular British Columbia.  Right now, $1,773.06 is awarded monthly if your spouse also has the Persons with Disabilities designation.  That is $21,276.72 a year - and one can earn above that amount ($19,200 for a family where both adults have the Persons with Disabilities designation.) Now compare an annual pay of $1200 in Kenya 1996 and our annual pay now, 2017.  Now compare to when my beloved husband was able to work full time at (Computer Programmer) Abe books?  He has always been a Volunteer admin for Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for as long as I can remember.  Keeps him writing.

To the millionaire our $ figures are peanuts, to us, it is everything.  Glory.  I pray that all disabled people and able people have enough for food, rent, medical care and clothing, globally.  Ameen.

By this point, I am walking on air in comparison to $100 a month.  In KES, and this is purely because I am from Kenya, I am what Daniel Tosh - Tosh.0 on Comedy Central calls minimum wage millionaires.  A person raised in Canada and did not earn $100 a month as a trained departmental secretary  would never know this kind of thinking.  Perception.  Notion.

Having said all that, I want to thank Canada for making sure I can live and work in dignity on labour day and way after labour day.  With death looming over my head or not.  I find that thought-provoking.

Ruta Wira 

Thank you North America for teaching me the true reason for work.

 Kenya, you must know:

so·cial serv·ice

ˌsōSHəl ˈsərvəs/

noun

plural noun: social services; noun: social service

1. government services provided for the benefit of the community, such as education, medical care, and housing.

   • activity aiming to promote the welfare of others. -Interneti/Internet. (Do it.  Enhance social services.  Mageria nomo mahota.)

I grew up with this song, Kenya style.  Thank you mum and dad for making sure we knew real hard labour as youngsters. I believe hard work never killed anybody and it does not vanish as a lifestyle.

Uvivu ni adui wa ujenzi wa taifa