What is Labor Day?

More Than a Weekend: Labor Day's Legacy

Labor Day in America is always the first Monday in September; it is a national holiday to honor the social and economic achievements of American workers.

More than 160 countries celebrate Labor Day; the majority celebrate it on or around May 1; otherwise known as International Workers’ Day. Only America and Canada celebrate in September. In Australia, it is celebrated three times a year: in March, May and October.

Before it was a federal holiday in America, Labor Day was recognized by labor activists and individual states. Municipal ordinances were passed first in 1885 and 1886; then the States started passing their own laws identifying a Labor Day holiday. Oregon was the first to do so on February 21, 1887. During that same year Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York passed their own laws creating a holiday. By 1894, another 26 states had adopted a holiday.  And then finally, on June 28, 1894, Congress passed, and President Grover Cleveland signed, a bill declaring the first Monday in September to be the nation’s legal Labor Day holiday.

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, 12 years before the national holiday was established. It was celebrated with a street parade to demonstrate “the strength and spirit de corps of the trade and labor organizations” in the community, followed by a festival and amusements for the workers and their families to enjoy. Today’s celebrations are very similar.

In some countries, however (and sometimes in the United States), happy festivities are masked by riots in major cities, often referred to as May Day Protests. The riots started in the 1850s when movements (organized groups) across the world were advocating for a reduction of work week hours. As part of a national campaign to secure an 8-hour workday (versus the current 10-hour day), a union strike at the McCormik Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago was organized for May 3, 1886. One person was killed and several injured that day when police intervened to protect strikebreakers and to intimidate strikers. A mass meeting was called the following day (which later became known as the Haymarket Riot) to protest the force used by police. The gathering at Haymarket Square was pronounced peaceful, until a bomb went off in the crowd and police opened fire. Seven police officers were killed. Over 60 police officers and 40 civilians were injured. Civilian casualties were estimated to be 4 to 8. Hundreds of labor leaders and sympathizers were arrested; some were sentenced to death by hanging. The Haymarket Affair had a lasting impact on the world; the Second International (a labor federation that represented all European countries, the United States, Canada, and Japan) proclaimed May Day (May 1) in 1889 to be International Worker’s Day.

America’s national holiday was purposely set on the first Monday in September because it was considered a more politically correct (more neutral) date, instead of a date remembering the Haymarket Riot. Labor Day also marks the unofficial end of summer; kids return to school.

United States Department of Labor – Fun Facts:

• Americans first celebrated Labor Day in 1882. ---- It became a federal holiday in 1894. --- Nineteen (19) years later, in 1913, President William Howard Taft signed the act creating the U.S. Department of Labor.
• The Department of Labor was the first Cabinet agency led by a woman. Thus far, 6 of the 29 appointed Department of Labor Secretaries have been women. 
• The Department of Labor was the first federal agency to officially allow women to work in pants. It was notable enough to merit a mention in a newsletter. [That snippet is captured below.]
• The US Department of Labor fought for the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. This act clearly defined a 40-hour work week and a minimum wage.

The main purpose of the Department of Labor is to administer federal labor laws to guarantee workers’ rights to fair, safe, and healthy working conditions, including minimum hourly wage and overtime pay, protection against employment discrimination, and unemployment insurance.

To all the hardworking men and women in the world, on behalf of Prevail Bank and its employees, enjoy your day! 

As Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, suggested in 1882, a general holiday should be set aside for the laboring classes to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold”.  

Yes, there is much grandeur today. There is much to be thankful for.

Happy Labor Day!