Labor Day

On Labor Day 1995, American unions stand at a crossroads between militancy and irrelevancy. Candidates for the succession to the AFL-CIO presidency, Tom Donahue and John Sweeney, predict they will end the stagnancy of the Lane Kirkland era. They vow aggressive organizing campaigns, toe-the-line treatment for politicians (read that Democrats) and an emphasis on consolidation and efficiency -- the trends that have made management much more formidable in recent years.Can they succeed? Harvard professor Richard Freeman forecasts that by 2000 organized labor's share of the private sector work force will shrink to 5 percent from its anemic 11 percent level at present.

In years past, Sima Blue would never have dreamed of stocking her Green Spring Station boutique with ivory sheath dresses, cream lace blazers and eggshell pleated skirts this late in the season. But times are changing. With major designers including Marc Jacobs and Celine showcasing white frocks and accessories for their fall collections, white will not only be accepted after Labor Day this season - it will be considered fashion-forward. The trend starts now and will lead up through more traditional "winter" whites.

Tomorrow is Labor Day, the most underrated holiday of all.Isn't it fitting? A day set aside to honor working people asks nothing more of us than that we sit back, take it easy and do whatever the heck we want. No cards to send, no presents to buy, no spiritual angst, no stress-laden convergence of family members from the four corners of the globe.If everybody wants to get together for a crab feast, fine. But no one's going to get bent out of shape if you take the kids for a ride or escape alone to a museum instead.

Today is the 100th celebration of Labor Day as a national holiday, a tribute to American working people declared by President Grover Cleveland in 1894, after most states had already done so.Originated by the New York Carpenters union, Labor Day is not just a celebration of organized labor but of all labor. Like other holidays, it has become a seasonal observance with a fuzzier focus: the end of summer and vacation season, the beginning of fall and (until recently) a new school year.It's also a traditional time to assess the state of labor in our country.

Slave Descendants Freedom Society Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the contributions enslaved people made to the United States, will hold a breakfast fund-raiser tomorrow. Project Labor Day will include speakers who will discuss the work their ancestors performed, as discovered through genealogical research. Project Labor Day will be held from 10 a.m. to noon in the Lakeview A room of the Sheraton Columbia Hotel, 10207 Wincopin Circle. Tickets are $30 and may be purchased at the door.

Hollywood filmmakers can survive all sorts of slings and arrows of misfortune, but when it comes to bad tidings, nothing stings quite as much as the news that the studio is putting your movie out on Labor Day weekend. In an era when holiday weekends are jammed with splashy new releases that rocket off to box-office records, Labor Day has become the industry's dumping ground for the kinds of clunkers that would challenge the skills of the best used-car salesman. Over the past 15 years, less than a handful of Labor Day weekend movies have made more than a paltry $20 million in their entire theatrical runs.

You would think that Labor Day is one day we can do without TV. There are no big parades or fireworks shows to watch, no football games, no traditional movies or such. Just cookouts and backyard celebrations, beaches and oceans, a time to be outside for a last lingering look back at summer and an anticipation of the fall ahead.But, if you're feeling a bit worn out after a day wrestling with the barbecue or fighting the traffic back from the shore, PBS is providing a perfect way to end the day, a celebration of the holiday, a nice 90 minutes that amounts to a video tribute of this day set aside to honor working people.

NOTHING signals the end of summer so definitively as the Labor Day weekend closing of our swimming pool. Peaches, tomatoes, corn and crabs may be finishing their seasons, the World Series may be fast approaching and fourth grade may loom like a specter on my young son's immediate horizon. But until Swan Lake closes, we can fool ourselves into thinking that summer will last forever. Swan Lake, like other public and private pools throughout the metropolitan area, is an oasis from Baltimore's notorious summer heat and humidity.

If the school board decides to start classes before Labor Day next fall, Kristen Binck's summer will be less happy.The 14-year-old freshman at Glenelg High School swims on the Harper's Choice team in June and July, which leaves August for the vacation time she usually divides between her divorced parents."

At 4 p.m. on Sept. 6, 1943, the Pennsylvania Railroad's crack Congressional Limited -- nicknamed "the Congo," by railroaders -- slowly swayed through the switches and crossovers of Washington's Union Station bound for New York City. It was the nation's second wartime Labor Day, and on board the 16-car train comprised of Pullmans, day coaches and a diner were 541 passengers, including servicemen returning from weekend furloughs, parents who had visited sons at military installations and vacationers marking the end of summer.