Labor Day 2022
LABOR DAY WEEKEND
September 05, 2022 is Labor Day, celebrated every first Monday of September. It symbolizes the end of summer for many Americans and is often celebrated with parties, street parades, and athletic events. Labor Day weekend was created as part of the labor movement in the late 19th century.
Labor Day, celebrating the American organized labor movement, is one of American history’s convergent chapters. Many sacrificed their lives fighting for freedom; fighting for fair labor remuneration, working conditions, and benefits.
History states that in the late 1800s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks in order to make a basic living. Agricultural societies became more industrialized and urban; the transcontinental railroad, the cotton gin, electricity, and other inventions permanently changed society in the United States. Despite restrictions in some states, children as young as five or six years old worked in mills, factories, and mines across the country, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts’ wages.
History also states that the very poor and recent immigrants of all ages often faced extremely unsafe working conditions, with insufficient access to fresh air, sanitary facilities, and breaks. As manufacturing increasingly superseded agriculture as the source of American employment, labor unions grew more prominent and vocal. Labor unions began organizing strikes and rallies to protest poor conditions and pressured employers to renegotiate hours and pay.
Many of the protests turned violent during this period. The climax of social unrest, Haymarket Incident of 1886, resulted in a riot and the death of at least seven Chicago policemen and workers after someone threw a bomb at police as they attempted to disperse a labor demonstration. The riot that also killed four civilians was viewed as a setback for the organized labor movement in America, which was fighting for rights such as the eight-hour workday. Many in the labor movement viewed the eight convicted anarchists, two of whom were at the event, as martyrs. Others joined in creating the peaceful long-established traditions. For example, on September 05, 1882, 10,000 workers took unpaid time off to march from City Hall to Union Square in New York City, holding what was considered the first Labor Day parade in United States history.
The strong voices of American citizens such as the Central Labor Union fought against unfair wages, working conditions, and practices. The Knights of Labor held a large convention in New York City complete with a parade, which led to the idea of a workingmen's holiday as other labor unions followed suit. In the wake of massive unrest known as the Great Upheaval, in an attempt to rectify with American workers Congress passed an act creating Labor Day a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories. On June 28, 1894, Congress passed the act naming the first day of September a legal holiday. Earlier in the year President Grover Cleveland, who was known as a political reformer, had pushed the legislation through after the Pullman Railway strike ended as a “gesture towards organized labor”.
More than a century later, many people credit Peter J. McGuire, cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, while other have suggested that Matthew Maguire, a secretary of the Central Labor Union, first proposed the Labor Day holiday (https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/labor-day-1).
Have a wonderful and safe Labor Day with family and friends!
Aurea
