Observed on the first Monday in September, Labor Day pays tribute to the
contributions and achievements of American workers. It was created by
the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday
in 1894. Labor Day also symbolizes the end of summer for many
Americans, and is celebrated with parties, parades and athletic events.
Labor Day, an annual celebration of workers and their achievements,
originated during one of American labor history’s most dismal chapters.
In the late 1800s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the United States,
the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks in order
to eke out a basic living. Despite restrictions in some states, children
as young as 5 or 6 toiled in mills, factories and mines across the
country, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts’ wages. People
of all ages, particularly the very poor and recent immigrants, often
faced extremely unsafe working conditions, with insufficient access to
fresh air, sanitary facilities and breaks.
As manufacturing
increasingly supplanted agriculture as the wellspring of American
employment, labor unions, which had first appeared in the late 18th
century, grew more prominent and vocal. They began organizing strikes
and rallies to protest poor conditions and compel employers to
renegotiate hours and pay. Many of these events turned violent during
this period, including the infamous Haymarket Riot of 1886, in which
several Chicago
policemen and workers were killed. Others gave rise to longstanding
traditions: On September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers took unpaid time off to
march from City Hall to Union Square in New York City,
holding the first Labor Day parade in U.S. history. The idea of a
“workingmen’s holiday,” celebrated on the first Monday in September,
caught on in other industrial centers across the country, and many
states passed legislation recognizing it.
Congress would not
legalize the holiday until 12 years later, when a watershed moment in
American labor history brought workers’ rights squarely into the
public’s view. On May 11, 1894, employees of the Pullman Palace Car
Company in Chicago went on strike to protest wage cuts and the firing of
union representatives. On June 26, the American Railroad Union, led by
Eugene V. Debs, called for a boycott of all Pullman railway cars,
crippling railroad traffic nationwide. To break the strike, the federal
government dispatched troops to Chicago, unleashing a wave of riots that
resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen workers. In the wake of
this massive unrest and in an attempt to repair ties with American
workers, Congress passed an act making Labor Day a legal holiday in the
District of Columbia and the territories.
More than a century
later, the true founder of Labor Day has yet to be identified. Many
credit Peter J. McGuire, cofounder of the American Federation of Labor,
while others have suggested that Matthew Maguire, a secretary of the
Central Labor Union, first proposed the holiday.
Labor Day is
still celebrated in cities and towns across the United States with
parades, picnics, barbecues, fireworks displays and other public
gatherings. For many Americans, particularly children and young adults,
it represents the end of the summer and the start of the back-to-school
season.
Source History.com