I open the door wide so that the elusive sun that shines this morning illuminates the corners of the house that smells of grass and moisture. Standing in the doorway with a huge smile lighting up his face in the light, Alberto greets me with a big hug. Happy day, he tells me. My surprise is complete. In general, he is not very aware of the reason for the holidays, busy as he is, with his sixty-odd years on his back, sweeping other people’s sidewalks, running errands for neighbors, taking care of houses and cars, fearing possible thieves on bicycles. Anyway, I tell him, thinking he’s wrong. Happy Labor Day he tells me.

My joy is immense. Yes, happy Labor Day, the one that cost and costs so many fights, so many deaths, so many marches, fatigue and anger, the one that someone said was penance. There, Alberto and I have joined in an embrace that declares us equal. And suddenly I realize something. It is not the same to say Labor Day as Labor Day.

The right to work as such is one of the achievements of humanity over thousands of years. People have the right to be able to work. And that this work is not slavery, nor a punishment like forced labor, but an activity that allows us to fulfill ourselves and contribute to the well-being of our family and society. Many currently in our country and in the world have no chance of finding it and feel useless, because work is a means of accessing resources that are needed in their lives and the lives of others.

If we emphasize the worker, then we declare our fundamental equality. And Albert’s hug translates that reality, we are all workers, we are brothers of achievement and exhaustion, creation and boredom, beautiful works and many researches.

The human challenge is to turn work into a manifestation of equality among workers.

The human challenge is to turn work into a manifestation of equality among workers.

That there are no children working in factories that enable us to later buy clothes, shoes, electrical appliances and technology at lower prices, because this is based on the slavery of thousands of people, who are not fairly paid for their work. Nor that miners work in inhumane conditions looking for minerals that will later be sold at pepper prices, and they leave their lives in the tunnels.

Nor that women receive less pay for the same job, nor that vacations are different depending on whether they work in the public or private sector, nor that employees of supermarkets and many stores in shopping centers have to spend the whole day on their feet, or when they are part of the production chain , they always have to maintain the same rhythm as if they were robots, almost without the possibility of going to the toilet.

In the constant contradiction between work and rest, between the effort invested and the compensation received, we observe the first steps of artificial intelligence that will surely bring fundamental changes to human endeavors when many of our activities will be performed by apparently more skilled and efficient intelligent devices.

We face strong challenges that will affect our ability to make workers equal. (OR)