The History Of Labor Day

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Labor Day is just one of the national holidays that citizens all over the USA celebrate. As a holiday, it’s uniquely American. Why is it that Americans observe the day, and how did it come about? Here is the history of the day, and why it holds so much meaning.

What Is Labor Day?

Labor Day itself is a holiday to celebrate the workers of the United States, and bring light to their achievements. Traditionally, the day is observed on the first Monday of every September.

The day first came about in the late 19th century, as workers began to campaign for a federal holiday to recognise the work that they did for the country as a whole. Today, the holiday is celebrated to recognise these efforts, and the efforts of all the people who work hard right now to improve the country as a whole.

The Beginnings of Labor Day

The beginnings of Labor Day were happening in the late 19th century, when the average worker in the USA worked 12-hour days, 7 days a week. Even while working such grueling hours, they still only made enough to just get by.

As well as adults, children as young as five years old were also working, typically in factories and mines. They would work similar hours, while earning a small fraction of what adults earned.

These workers were subject to poor conditions as they worked, which included a lack of sanitary facilities, fresh air, or breaks. They were also subject to unsafe practices that put their health and even lives at risk.

Because of this, there was growing unrest within the working class during this time. This gave rise to labor unions, that would work to make the voices of these workers heard. They were working hard at this point to get better conditions, through rallies, protests and strikes. Some of these events gave rise to violence, such as the Haymarket Riot in 1886, where both police and workers were killed.

The First Labor Day

Labor Day was not celebrated as a federal holiday at first. Instead, it was celebrated by industrial activists as a form of protest, to show how much of an impact workers make and how important they were to the Industrial Revolution, and the country as a whole.

The very first Labor Day was in fact a protest march, held on September 5th, 1882. 10,000 workers took time off work, unpaid, in order to march from City Hall to Union Square in New York City.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The holiday would be celebrated without the input of the government until 1894, when the public was made aware of exactly what was happening in the movement thanks to a couple of large-scale incidents. The first was a general strike by the workers of the Pullman Place Car Company in Chicago. The staff here went on strike to protest wage cuts and the fact that their union representatives had been fired from their positions.

As a result of this, the American Railroad Union called for a boycott of all Pullman railway cars. This was enough to fully cripple railways across the nation. In order to end this boycott, troops were called in and this led to riots with deaths of over a dozen workers.

After these events, municipal ordinances were passed in 1885 and 1886, which was done to get state legislation for the holiday. It was New York who was the first state to legally recognise Labor Day, on February 21st, 1887. Many states followed suit in the following years, including Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut among others. In June 1894, Congress passed an act which then legally enshrined the first Monday in September as a legal holiday.

Who Created the Holiday?

Was the idea of Labor Day the brainchild of any one person? The exact origins are unclear, but there are two people who claimed to have created the day.

Peter J. McGuire, the general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, first laid claim to the idea of Labor Day. There are some records out there that indicate he had proposed setting aside a day for a ‘general holiday for the laboring classes’, in order to celebrate them for the work they do.

However, this is not the only origin story of the holiday as we know it. Machinist Matthew Maguire, the secretary of the Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, New Jersey, may possibly have come up with the idea instead. Recent records show he had proposed the idea in 1882 while he was working with the Central Labor Union in New York.

While there was a lot of support behind Maguire as the real originator of the holiday, the dispute has never been cleared up. We do know, though, that both Matthew Maguire and Peter J. McGuire attended the very first Labor Day parade in New York City.

Labor Day Today

How is Labor Day celebrated today, in the 21st century? Parades are still held on the day, symbolizing the very first march that happened in the 1800’s. This was recommended by union leaders in the years before it became a national holiday. They recommended a parade to show the strength and spirit of the workers of America.

As well as the parade, festivals for the recreation of workers and their families were recommended too. Today, the federal holiday allows workers time off to spend with their loved ones. This allows for picnics and parties, which are very common.

In later years, Labor Sunday was adopted, which falls before the Monday of Labor Day. This day is dedicated to the spiritual and educational parts of the day, while the Monday is dedicated to the economic significance of the initial movement.

Labor Day is a holiday that serves to memorialize the fight of workers to improve their working conditions, and bring light to what they do. It is a tradition that’s still upheld to this day.