Labor Day

It's Labor Day weekend! But what does that mean? It signals the end of summer and the beginning of another school year. It means BBQs and three-day weekends and back-to-school shopping. But do we really know what we are celebrating? It dawned on me that I never really understood what Labor Day was and why it was a federal holiday. Are we honoring labor with a day off? Seems a bit hypocritical. What if we celebrated Independence Day by becoming more dependent? Or if we celebrated Thanksgiving by by fasting?

Labor Day does in fact have its roots buried in the labor movement. Apparently the first labor day parade was held in New York City in September of 1882. Thousands of workers and their families took a hiatus from work and marched through the streets in honor of American workers. A year later, the Central Labor Union held their own celebration and selected the first Monday of September as Labor Day in 1884. Several states recognized the day, but it wasn't until 1894 that it became a federal holiday - and this is where politics comes into play.

On May 11, 1894, workers at Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago went on strike to protest cut wages and the firing of union representatives. Union leaders soon got involved and the protest reached across America. The American Railway Union called a boycott of all Pullman cars and the work of 50,000 rail workers screeched to a halt and things got ugly in Chicago. On July 4th (ironically) President Grover Cleveland dispatched troops to combat the rising upheaval. After several riots and a lot of bloodshed, the crowds were dispersed and the strike came to a close. The event brought workers' and union rights into the homes of every American and congress decided that something needed to be done to appease the masses and recognize the struggles of the working man. It was within days of the end of the Pullman strike that congress declared the first Monday of September, Labor Day, a federal holiday.

This is pretty significant stuff! It makes me wonder why I never learned this in school. Why didn't we have Labor Day pageants that depicted the 12 hour days and horrible conditions American workers used to face? Why aren't more speeches made about the labor movement and what it meant to America?

I don't have the answers to those questions but we all know how ironic a Labor Day celebration is in the face of the country's worst every unemployment rates so maybe it makes sense that instead of orating speeches on the sacrifices made during the labor movement we don our bathing suits, grab a beer and put a few burgers on the grill. And if you actually have a job right now, enjoying your day off.