May Day: International Worker’s Day
When you think about 'May Day,' you probably envision people in the streets striking for better working conditions or dancing with colorful strips of fabric around a post. May Day has varying associations both historically and throughout the world. In Europe, May 1 is celebrated as a festival of ancient origins, marking the beginning of summer. The Celts of the British Isles believed May 1 to be the most important day of the year. In Greek and Roman times, it was a day to celebrate spring and specifically the goddesses over spring.
In the United States, May 1 was the birth of the 8-hour workday movement in the 19th century in Chicago. It was common for workers to work 10 to 16-hour work days in unsafe conditions. On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 employees across the US walked off their jobs to demand an 8-hour workday, raise awareness of working people's rights, and protect workers from exploitation.
Within the design industry, advocacy for workers and their value within architecture has been a significant part of May Day. The profession often exploited workers through long work hours and low salaries. A great aspect of design is that many designers, architects, engineers, contractors, etc., are international workers. Diversity within the profession is incredibly sustainable. But many within the profession continue to fight and look for ways to expand awareness and make changes to help new and coming architects into the profession.
Today, the design industry continues to evolve and find ways to advocate for professional workers. A current primary debate is internships within architecture. For years, an internship was looked at as a rite of passage. Learning and doing everything you can within the profession for little to no pay. In 2004, certain practices began to integrate fair compensation into their internship programs, but many interns still struggle to make ends meet due to low minimum wages. Within the past two years, many interns and employees have begun to voice their frustration and concerns virtually through social media. The new unofficial labor union within architecture is unknowingly virtual. It has allowed hundreds of employees to cross borders and industries and ask questions ranging from pay, workday hours, licensure, internship experience, unethical job duties, exploitation, and even labor issues in this globalized profession.
May Day will continue to be a day of expansion and advocacy for architecture and every other profession globally. As stated by USGC LEED, "A truly sustainable building practice should – for its own interests, financial, ethical and otherwise – harbor good will, maintain a mutually financially lucrative relationship with its workers, and be able to continue fiscally, socially, and culturally, as well as ecologically. Workers’ rights and safety should be a pivotal point for any sustainability discussion: the environment is not just the air, ground, and water, but the people with whom we work and live." It is up to us to continue to practice sustainably within our firms to create progressive working conditions for every individual within the profession.