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Labor Day, celebrating summer’s end or the American worker?

Sep 3, 2005

Labor Day will be celebrated this year on Monday, September 5, which is the actual date that the first holiday was celebrated in 1882.

A street parade of workers, followed by a picnic for them and their families and, perhaps, speeches by prominent labor leaders were the order of that day. What began as a labor union celebration has become the last chance to celebrate the end of summer.

Research tells us that a machinist, Matthew Maguire, first proposed Labor Day when he was the secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. The union, after adopting his proposal, planned to celebrate a workers’ holiday. The idea spread to other states, but it took two more years for Congress to declare it a national holiday to be celebrated on the first Monday of every September.

President Grover Cleveland, in an attempt to win back popularity after sending troops to crush the employees’ strike against the Pullman Railway Car Company in Illinois, rushed the bill through Congress. Labor Day was born in an election year, but Cleveland was not reelected.

Today, 111 years later, Labor Day is still recognized in the United States and Canada as a holiday dedicated to the achievements of workers. Samuel Gompers, the president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), called it a time “when workers of our day may lay down their tools of labor for a holiday.”

When asked what they would be doing, these Maricopa residents responded with their Labor Day plans.

No longer seen as part of the labor movement, Labor Day has become a time when everyone takes a day off work, if possible. Many schools and colleges begin their fall sessions after Labor Day. Swimming pools close, as do some state parks. Highways are packed with friends and families traveling to picnic grounds or backyards to bid farewell to summer and hello to autumn.

Although Labor Day has gained so much popularity as summer’s “last fling” in the past few years, its origins remain important. The American workers’ past, present and future contributions to the economy and stability of this nation should always be celebrated.