For some of us, anyway.

From http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/australia/labour-day

"The history of Labour Day in Australia spans over a century. It is an important annual event that remembers those who struggled and succeeded to ensure decent and fair working conditions in Australia. During the mid to late 1800s the working day was long and arduous, where some employees would work up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

Many Australians saw the need for better working conditions and in the 1850s there was a strong push for this. On April 21, 1856, stonemasons at the University of Melbourne marched to Parliament House to push for an eight-hour working day. An agreement with employers for a 48-hour week was eventually reached and Australian workers welcomed the new eight-hour day. A victory march was held on May 12 that year and each year after that. In 1856 the new work regulations were recognized in New South Wales, followed by Queensland in 1858 and South Australia in 1873.

In 1874, Tasmania joined the other states, which were colonies at the time, in adopting the shorter eight-hour working day. In 1879 the Victorian Government made one further step towards better conditions for employees by proclaiming a paid public holiday that year. In light of the labour movement’s successful push for an eight-hour day, a large May Day meeting was held in Melbourne in 1890. On May 1 that year a local newspaper made reference to that day as May Day.

One of the first May Day/Labour Day marches in Australia occurred on May 1, 1891 in Queensland. More than 1000 people participated in the march and carried banners. The leaders wore blue sashes and the Eureka flag was carried. It was reported that cheers were given for “the eight-hour day”. The Labour Day date was moved from May to the second Monday in March in some parts of Australia after World War II. Since 1948, Labour Day in Western Australia has been observed on the first Monday in March. It marks the granting of the eight hour working day to Western Australians."

The old, original Australian Labor movement certainly had something to celebrate, and that should be remembered.

The same cannot be said for the modern movement, however.

Who has cause to celebrate?

<UNIONS DRIVE UP HOME UNIT PRICES

STRIKES and union demands add $50,000 to the cost of every home unit in Queensland’s largest apartment blocks. So says Master Builders, the construction industry lobby group.

And it warns that taxpayers are paying millions more for vital infrastructure such as hospitals because of strikes, pickets, intimidation and inflated wage packages.

Buildings hit by costly strikes in recent years include the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts, the QUT Kelvin Grove Creative Precinct, the Gold Coast Hospital and high-rise apartment blocks at West End, Fortitude Valley and the Gold Coast.

“The union holds the entire industry to ransom,” John Crittall, a Master Builders director, said.

He said a single day lost to strikes could cost a developer tens of thousands of dollars.

“There have been millions of dollars in losses in disputes over enforcing union EBAs (enterprise bargaining agreements).

“It’s such a hostile union. The royal commission (into corruption) has made some findings which are extremely disturbing to the industry.”

The children’s hospital lost nine weeks to industrial disruption and the QUT creative arts building, six weeks.

“They suffered enormous industrial unrest with multiple strikes and many days of lost production,’’ Crittall said.

“The union has acted with legal impunity.’’

The CFMEU has around 30,000 members in Queensland including carpenters, steel workers, form workers, concreters, scaffolders and crane crews including riggers and dogmen.

Other members are from the finishing trades and include painters, tilers, bricklayers, plasterers and plant operators.

“The new deal has a carpenter on $145,000 – but it will cost the boss $188,000 to put him on the ground,’’ Crittall said. “Union costs are so much out of whack that unit owners pay $50,000 too much.

“The non-union sector on smaller jobs has 30 per cent less costs.’’>

http://tinyurl.com/oz7h5yy

Beach you would reduce workers to the begging bowl mentality given half a chance.