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When Labor Won A Day

In the years of running through sprinklers and making mud pies Labor Day meant the end of summer and the start of another lingering school year. But, as we got older Labor Day took on a new meaning. Today it serves as a much-needed three-day weekend to spend time with family, relax or enjoy the outdoors. As we suck up the remnants of summer let’s consider the reason for this glorious break from humdrum daily life.

Labor Day is unlike any holiday observed by any given nation across the globe. "All other holidays are more or less connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation." said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. Instead, Labor Day pays homage to the social and economic accomplishments of the workers who shaped our prosperous economy and set forth the standard of living we enjoy today.

The proposition of having a day dedicated to “all who labor” was introduced by Peter McGuire, an Irish-American cabinetmaker and pioneer unionist in May1882. The following September a parade was staged in New York City. Not yet a recognized holiday, many workers’ jobs were threatened when they took it upon themselves to march in the parade. The event was a major local success. However, its rise in national popularity was a dawdling and treacherous path as McGuire’s visionary holiday moved slowly across the nation.

The American Labor movement began to grow and quickly became aggressive. It could no longer be ignored as it ascended strongly in worker-dominated cities like Detroit. Shortly, one city after another adopted the first Monday of September as their Labor Day holiday and in 1894 congress voted it a national holiday. It took twelve years, but finally President Grover Cleveland signed a Labor Day holiday bill under voter pressure in a re-election year. The bill passed but Cleveland was left behind.

Over the next 100 years the Labor Day parades continued as workers struggled through numerous pickets and strikes for better benefits. Momentum soon faded as we forgot the struggles of the past and basked in our newly obtained quality of life.

Imagine a world with no health insurance, 401K, overtime pay, even vacation, sick leave and safety regulations. Life as we know it would not exist. So this year as we take one last dip in the pool or stroll into the park for a picnic, let’s remember our long legacy of labor history and take pride in a nation that provides all of us, from homemaker to brain surgeon, with a day of thanks for all the hard work we do.

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