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Labor Day…Just Another Holiday?

Written by: Jennifer Loftus

Article Overview: Every year, near the end of August, many prepare for the federal holiday of Labor Day on the first Monday of September. A lot of people consider Labor Day the close of summer. Many look forward to the last summer barbeque, time spent with family and friends, and also the Labor Day sales! Interestingly, the origins of the Labor Day holiday are not always discussed. In this edition of Astronology we will crack open the history books to discover the origins of the federal holiday of Labor Day.

Labor Day…Just Another Holiday?

The Very First Labor Day Celebration According to the Department Of Labor, the federal holiday of Labor Day was a creation of the labor movement in America. It is a "dedication to social and economic achievements of American workers." Many believe the very first Labor Day parade was held in 1882, when 10,000 workers marched from City Hall to Union Square in New York City to raise concerns regarding labor issues. Although it did not become a legalized holiday until 12 years later, small parades like these became common as workers took unpaid time off in order to vocalize issues they all shared.

The pinnacle moment for the holiday arrived in May 1894. Workers from the Pullman Palace Company protested unfair wage cuts and termination of union representatives. After workers sought the support from the American Railroad Union, its President, Eugene V. Debs, requested a boycott on Pullman railway cars. The end result was a protest causing President Grover Cleveland to intervene, sending in troops to halt the intense rioting and bloodshed. Although Debs and many other union workers were jailed, this boycott raised public concern for worker rights. Thus, Congress decided to make the first Monday of every September Labor Day.

Labor Issues are Worldwide Issues

Many are not aware that labor issues and the labor movement are not unique to the United States, but rather a worldwide issue. For starters, in 1817, Robert Owen, an English social reformer, coined the slogan, "Eight Hours Labour, Eight Hours Recreation, Eight Hours Rest" in his goal to create 8 hour workdays for workers in England. France won its right for 12-hour workdays during their industrial revolution. Demands also included better working conditions and organization for trade unions. Industrial revolutions and many of the same labor issues found in the United States were also being faced outside our borders. As a result, the International Worker's Day (or May Day) is celebrated on a worldwide scale. This holiday is often used as a day for political demonstrations in connection with the celebration of worker rights.

Labor Issues Today & The Importance of the Labor Day Holiday Now

Although it would be nice to think that all labor concerns worldwide have been solved since the 1880s, this is not the case. In early November 2007 to February 2008 the Writer's Guild of America, East and the Writer's Guild of America, West led a Writer's Strike bringing writer's concerns on compensation to the forefront. In 2005, New York City Transit Workers conducted a strike for worker benefits and wages. 600 pilots of All Nippon Airways went on a 24-hour strike in Japan to protest management's response to the pilots' concerns for safety in April of this year. South African construction workers recently ended a strike after receiving a 12% pay increase, a 1 percentage point decrease from their earlier demands of 13%. Labor issues are still of concern across the globe. As a result, the holiday of Labor Day and International Worker's Day still calls to mind the fact that there are unmet labor concerns. We hope on this upcoming Labor Day that these issues will one day be resolved, keeping both employers and their workers satisfied, safe, and engaged.

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Article Tags: american railroad, economic achievements, eugene v debs, federal holiday, grover cleveland, holid, industrial revolutions, labor day parade, president grover cleveland, railroad union, railway cars, revolution demands, robert owen, social reformer, trade unions, unpaid time, workdays, worldwide issue, worldwide issues, worldwide scale



Related Forum Posts
Re: Moderators on vacation - This moderator is not going on Holiday. I am here
Re: Vacation for Evan - Have a Happy Holiday and have fun!
Re: Best Month For Getting Financed? - Let me suggest that May/June are the best months to inquire about funding and investment. Once tax season is over, banks and investors have plenty of budgeted or reserved funds waiting for commercial clients. Funds start to become limited around Labor Day!
Successes at My Space - [quote:37w3bsp7]do you mind sharing some of your successes with MySpace? [/quote:37w3bsp7] Hi, Evan Actually the successes I was talking about was with the Groups feature - there are soooo many groups there of interest to me, from the fiction to the sciences, that I've joined them all. I don't find Facebook's Groups stuff to be user-friendly at all. I will say that the more I browse, the more I just shake my head at what people do there (as well as on Facebook, of course). Profile pages where the text of everything is illegible, either because they have a dark, illustrated background - which looks nice but makes it impossible to read anything, or because they choose weird colors - one person I saw yesterday used light red text on a dark green background. And when you read their blog entries or even the text on their profiles... it's like they can't put together a coherent sentence, let alone spell any of the words properly. And I don't think they parse other people's writings very well, either... Well..end of rant I'm just annoyed because it's Labor Day weekend and I'm sure everyone's out in the fun and the sun instead of being at home surfing the web [and in particular my site]!
Office gifts,help settle this one... - Ok- I wasn't sure where to post this, so I just stuck it in the forum I moderate. I think I've mentioned before that I work a full time job (outside of my home businesses), in a business financial brokerage. that being said, see if you can settle this one- Every year during December Holiday time, we receive gift baskets in the office from the banks/ Lenders we work with. My boss, although very generous all year long, will take most of the gift baskets home for he and his family. I'm talking a heck of a lot of gift baskets! My view on this is that when a gift basket is sent to an office, it should be enjoyed by everyone because we all work as a team equally as hard. We (the staff) believe that although most of the baskets are addressed to our boss, they are meant for "the office" because last year one of the lenders found out that my boss took it home (our office manager blew the whistle there) and the bank got upset and sent another one just for the staff! What is everyone's take on this, does he have the right to take it all home and "hog" the gift? If it happens again this year, should something be mentioned to him and if so, what/how?


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