This year, Labor Day is Monday, Sept 2. Labor Day isn’t just about unions. It’s a national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
History of Labor Day
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882 in New York City in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. On that day, about 20,000 workers marched to demand an eight-hour workday and other labor law reforms. In a parade up Broadway in New York City, workers carried banners reading, “Labor Creates All Wealth” and “Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, Eight Hours for Recreation.” About a quarter million New Yorkers turned out to watch.After the first Labor Day in New York City, celebrations began to spread to other states as workers fought to win workplace rights and better working conditions and wages at a time when they had little power. In 1893, New York City workers took an unpaid day off and marched around Union Square in support of a national Labor Day.
The following year, 12,000 federal troops were called into Pullman, Ill., to break up a huge strike against the Pullman railway company and two workers were shot and killed by U.S. deputy marshals. In what most historians call an election year attempt to appease workers after the federal crackdown on the Pullman strike, shortly after the strike was broken, President Grover Cleveland signed legislation making the first Monday in September Labor Day and a federal holiday. Cleveland lost the election but Labor Day was now federally recognized.
