Have We Forgotten the True Meaning of Labor Day?_我的网站
A | 作为A股市值已高达1565亿元的行业巨头，东鹏饮料再次向港交所发起冲击。2025年4月首次递交的招股书已经失效，近日又更新了材料。
B |
Labor Day is a U.S. national holiday held the first Monday every September. Unlike most U.S. holidays, it is a strange celebration without rituals, except for shopping and barbecuing. For most people it simply marks the last weekend of summer and the start of the school year.
The holiday’s founders in the late 1800s envisioned something very different from what the day has become. The founders were looking for two things: a means of unifying union workers and a reduction in work time.
The first Labor Day occurred in 1882 in New York City under the direction of that city’s Central Labor Union.
In the 1800s, unions covered only a small fraction of workers and were balkanized and relatively weak. The goal of organizations like the Central Labor Union and more modern-day counterparts like the AFL-CIO was to bring many small unions together to achieve a critical mass and power. The organizers of the first Labor Day were interested in creating an event that brought different types of workers together to meet each other and recognize their common interests.
However, the organizers had a large problem: No government or company recognized the first Monday in September as a day off work. The issue was solved temporarily by declaring a one-day strike in the city. All striking workers were expected to march in a parade and then eat and drink at a giant picnic afterwards.
Why was Labor Day invented?
Labor Day came about because workers felt they were spending too many hours and days on the job.
In the 1830s, manufacturing workers were putting in 70-hour weeks on average. Sixty years later, in 1890, hours of work had dropped, although the average manufacturing worker still toiled in a factory 60 hours a week.
These long working hours caused many union organizers to focus on winning a shorter eight-hour work day. They also focused on getting workers more days off, such as the Labor Day holiday, and reducing the workweek to just six days.
These early organizers clearly won since the most recent data show that the average person working in manufacturing is employed for a bit over 40 hours a week and most people work only five days a week.
As the U.S. economy expanded beyond farming and basic manufacturing in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it became important for businesses to find consumers interested in buying the products and services being produced in ever greater amounts. Shortening the work week was one way of turning the working class into the consuming class.
The common misconception is that since Labor Day is a national holiday, everyone gets the day off. Nothing could be further from the truth.
While the first Labor Day was created by striking, the idea of a special holiday for workers was easy for politicians to support. It was easy because proclaiming a holiday, like Mother’s Day, costs legislators nothing and benefits them by currying favor with voters. In 1887, Oregon, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey all declared a special legal holiday in September to celebrate workers.
Within 12 years, half the states in the country recognized Labor Day as a holiday. It became a national holiday in June 1894 when President Grover Cleveland signed the Labor Day bill into law. While most people interpreted this as recognizing the day as a national vacation, Congress’ proclamation covers only federal employees. It is up to each state to declare its own legal holidays.
Moreover, proclaiming any day an official holiday means little, as an official holiday does not require private employers and even some government agencies to give their workers the day off. Many stores are open on Labor Day. Essential government services in protection and transportation continue to function, and even less essential programs like national parks are open. Because not everyone is given time off on Labor Day, union workers as recently as the 1930s were being urged to stage one-day strikes if their employer refused to give them the day off.
In the president’s annual Labor Day declaration last year, Obama encouraged Americans “to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies and activities that honor the contributions and resilience of working Americans.”
The proclamation, however, does not officially declare that anyone gets time off.
Controversy: Militants and founders
Today most people in the U.S. think of Labor Day as a noncontroversial holiday.
The first controversy that people fought over was how militant workers should act on a day designed to honor workers. Communist, Marxist and socialist members of the trade union movement supported May 1 as an international day of demonstrations, street protests and even violence, which continues even today.
More moderate trade union members, however, advocated for a September Labor Day of parades and picnics. In the U.S., picnics, instead of street protests, won the day.
There is also dispute over who suggested the idea. The earliest history from the mid-1930s credits Peter J. McGuire, who founded the New York City Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, in 1881 with suggesting a date that would fall “nearly midway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving” that “would publicly show the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations.”
Later scholarship from the early 1970s makes an excellent case that Matthew Maguire, a representative from the Machinists Union, actually was the founder of Labor Day. However, because Matthew Maguire was seen as too radical, the more moderate Peter McGuire was given the credit.
Who actually came up with the idea will likely never be known, but you can vote online here to express your view.
Have we lost the spirit of Labor Day?
Today Labor Day is no longer about trade unionists marching down the street with banners and their tools of trade. Instead, it is a confused holiday with no associated rituals.
The original holiday was meant to handle a problem of long working hours and no time off. Although the battle over these issues would seem to have been won long ago, this issue is starting to come back with a vengeance, not for manufacturing workers but for highly skilled white-collar workers, many of whom are constantly connected to work.
If you work all the time and never really take a vacation, start a new ritual that honors the original spirit of Labor Day. Give yourself the day off. Don’t go in to work. Shut off your phone, computer and other electronic devices connecting you to your daily grind. Then go to a barbecue, like the original participants did over a century ago, and celebrate having at least one day off from work during the year!
C | 净利润分别为14.4亿、20.4亿、33.3亿，年复合增长率达52.0%，2025年上半年净利润就达23.7亿。
它的财务数据表现抢眼，市场评价却呈现出明显的割裂。多年来，其核心产品能量饮料“东鹏特饮”贡献了公司总收入的九成以上。相比于产品结构单一所带来的经营风险，大众更关注能量饮料是否会带来健康隐患。
01、“提神”还是“伤身”？市场评价陷两极
近年东鹏饮料的业绩发展可谓飞速。
根据招股书，东鹏饮料在中国功能饮料行业前五大公司中，市场份额达26.3%，位列第一，即每卖出5瓶能量饮料，至少有一瓶是东鹏饮料产品，2022年到2024年其销量年复合增长率达41.9%。
2024年，其能量饮料销量达308万吨，同比增长29.1%。以其主推的500ml（其客服称重量约为500g）一瓶东鹏特饮维生素功能饮料来计算，能装61.6亿瓶。若按中国约14亿人口计算，平均每人能喝4.4瓶。
但自东鹏饮料向港交所递交招股书以来，其IPO消息下的热门评论中，常出现对其产品的质疑声音。诸如“估计是下了什么高科技，一喝它的我精神特别好”“这玩意对人体伤害这么大，就没人敢提吗”等声音，在社交平台上并不少见。
D |
综合来看，相关质疑主要聚焦在两方面：一是产品可能带来的健康隐患，二是“上头”的困扰。
据《国际金融报》报道，有消费者在社交平台发帖称，喝了东鹏特饮几个月后，体检时查出尿酸超标，并引发痛风。报道提到这并非个例，不少网友在相关话题下现身说法，“每天喝一两瓶东鹏，查出尿酸高”。
E |
另据中华网财经报道，一位曾从事货运的司机透露，年轻时因长时间驾驶常喝东鹏等能量饮料，及王老吉等含糖饮料，加之运动少，患上了糖尿病。
但目前，尚未见与这类健康问题有关的诉讼，更重要的是，也缺乏直接证据证明消费者患病与饮用该类饮料存在明确因果关系。在投资者互动平台上，有投资者针对功能饮料产品中的成分提问时，东鹏饮料董秘回应表示，东鹏特饮是经卫生部批准的保健食品，按建议饮用量，是安全、可靠的。
另外，在社交媒体上有不少消费者提到对东鹏特饮的“依赖”。
在知乎上，有网友发帖求助，表示“天天喝东鹏特饮，喝了两三年左右了，平均一天两三瓶。
F | 就是当水喝了，这样对身体有没有害？戒不掉啊”。
小红书上也有用户表达担忧，“刚开始喝还好，喝了几天感觉离不开了，天天想喝”。
此外，在春雨医生、杏林普康等健康咨询平台上，也不乏患者提问，如“东鹏特饮喝多了会怎样，几乎天天两瓶，戒不掉了？”等。这些来自不同平台的声音，共同指向了东鹏特饮在部分消费者中形成的依赖现象。
02、能量饮料的“真面目”
能量饮料一直争议缠身。
这是一种特殊用途饮料，属于能为机体补充能量或加速能量释放的保健食品，企业进入这一领域，需要获得国家市场监督管理总局批准的保健食品认证“蓝帽子”，东鹏特饮就是其中之一。
G |
根据招股书，东鹏特饮披露了部分成分，表示添加了牛磺酸、赖氨酸、肌醇、咖啡因、维生素PP（烟酸）、维生素B6、维生素B12功效成分。而在其官方旗舰店里，主要原料里还提及了白砂糖、柠檬酸、柠檬酸钠、香精、苯甲酸钠、柠檬黄、胭脂红。
其中苯甲酸钠属于食品防腐剂，柠檬黄和胭脂红为着色剂，柠檬酸钠属于食品添加剂。
而起到抗疲劳的主要成分，则是牛磺酸、咖啡因，一瓶500ml的东鹏特饮，含牛磺酸250mg，咖啡因100mg。
H |
作为能量饮料的主要兴奋成分咖啡因，有刺激中枢神经系统的功能。咖啡因的耐受程度是因人而异，年龄、体重、心血管健康程度，甚至饮用当天的身体和精神状况都与之有关。有数据表明，对咖啡因较敏感的人可能会导致心律失常。
