Labor Day in the U.S.A.

Labor Day celebrates the American worker.  The men and women who wake up every day and go to work in order to make the world around us a little easier and a little better.  Those who help make America – America.

The holiday has its origins in the 1880s.  After the Civil War, America shifted from a largely agricultural society to an industrial economy.  This transition was not always easy for industrial workers, as many worked long hours, usually twelve-hour days six days a week, just to make ends meet.  This gave rise to labor unions that organized against poor working conditions and wage cuts.

On September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers took unpaid time off to march from City Hall to Union Square in New York City, holding the first Labor Day parade in U.S. history. The idea of a “workingmen’s holiday,” celebrated on the first Monday in September, caught on in other industrial centers across the country and many states passed legislation to recognize it as a holiday.

In 1894, to repair relations with American workers after a strike in Chicago turned deadly and crippled railway traffic nationwide, Congress passed an act making Labor Day a federal holiday.  The act was signed into law on June 28, 1894, by President Grover Cleveland.

In a footnote of interest, Henry Ford is widely credited with the current five-day, 40-hour work week, when the Ford Motor Company became the first major American corporation to implement the model in 1922.  Other companies soon followed.