Monday was Labor Day. Our Labor Day in the U.S. is little more than a hat tip to workers by giving them a paid day off … maybe … and holding a barbecue and a lastminute school supply check. In other places in the world, where the first of May is International Workers Day, the mood is quite different.

The May Day celebration began in Chicago, in the U. S., but because it was connected with the shameful trials and executions of some of the labor leaders agitating for an eight- hour workday and rallying against Pinkerton strikebreakers, the Haymarket Massacre, as it is known today, is a much more somber event, if anyone even remembers it at all.

No one really does. No one remembers the labor leaders who gave their lives so that child laborers vanished from mill floors. No one recalls how much effort it took so that people could not be forced to work overtime without being paid for it. No one remembers the women who stood shoulder to shoulder during the Bread and Roses strike so immigrants didn’t earn less than native born workers.

Labor Day is a day that celebrates the balance of labor and capital in our society. Abraham Lincoln tilted in favor of labor, by saying, “Labor predates capital. It is more important than capital. Without labor, there is no capital.”

And so this past Labor Day is a tale of two companies. On Monday, 300 workers from FairPoint gathered in Longfellow Square in Portland to protest FairPoint’s failure to reach an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical and Communications Workers. The company walked away from the bargaining table after four months of negotiations, paving the way for an employee lockout or strike. The final “offer” doesn’t increase wages, offers the same kind of medical plan the employees have now, freezes the pension plan and eliminates retiree’s medical benefits.

In 2013, according to their own financial report, FairPoint’s telephone and internet services’ revenue increased 13 percent, while they’re trying to cut worker benefits. Yeah, that’s fair. Right.

The other company is Market Basket, which isn’t unionized, but whose CEO had set up a generous profit sharing fund for the employees. When Arthur T. Demoulas was ousted in a family takeover, workers went on the picket line, customers boycotted and delivery companies stopped delivering. Artie T, as he is called, signed a deal last week to buy the whole company. Today, you’d never know a work stoppage had occurred.

Why are employees rallying TO their CEO from Market Basket, while preparing to walk out at Fair- Point?

It’s easy. Artie T. recognizes the importance of labor. He knows his company is nothing without its workers. FairPoint is still laboring under the misconception that its shareholders are the heart of the company.

Market Basket is proof that labor and capital don’t have to be in opposition, just in balance. When will FairPoint learn that lesson?