Labor Day: Rooted in Strife
"Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country. All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation." So said Samuel Gompers, the founder and long standing president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
Various men are credited with the original idea of a worker's holiday, Peter McGuire, Matthew Maguire and Robert Blissert, the head of the Knights of Labor. One fact all agree on, the first celebration took place in New York City on September 5, 1882, which was, oddly enough, a Tuesday.
Thousands of workers gave up a day's pay to join in the march (parade), the celebration and speeches, to protest long hours and low wages. The parade was planned to coincide with a Knights of Labor conference.
After witnessing the success of the New York event, similar groups in other cities began their own celebrations. Soon, state legislatures were being petitioned to make the day a state holiday intended to honor labors contribution to the country and changing the date to the first Monday in September. The first state to declare the day a holiday was Oregon, in 1887, followed by Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
President Grover Cleveland signed the bill into law in 1894, in part to appease labor in an election year. Ironically, it was Cleveland, who had just days earlier, had sent in thousands of federal troops to break up the Pullman Strike. This action led to rioting, violence and bloodshed.
Railway workers in Chicago were protesting wage cuts and the strike spread across the nation, crippling the railroads, with the hub being Chicago. A commission was set up and testimony taken. According to Theodore Rhodie, a Pullman worker, "We an make from $2.65 to $2.80 per day, working l01/2 hours per day..for work that I got $9 per hundred last fall...we could not make $1.25 per day out of it. It was impossible to make a living." Rent for the Pullman row houses ran from $15 to $22 a month, taken directly out of the pay as rent to Mr. Pullman.
Although the United States and Canada celebrate in September, most of the world celebrates on May 1, a strange fact considering the roots of the May Day (International Labor Day) celebration spring from a tragic event in U.S. history.
The date, May 1, was chosen to commemorate the Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago in 1886. Workers were protesting for an 8-hour day and riots and more blood was shed. Four men were convicted and hanged, but others were later pardoned. The result of this workers rally is the basis of the May Day holiday, agreed on in Paris 1889.
Today, Labor Day seems far from those early roots. It is now associated more with the end of summer and a return to school. Few today may recall that it was not until 1938, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, that a forty hour week, maximum hours and mandatory vacation time became the standard in this country.
With such a hard fought history it is amazing that, according to a Harris Interactive Survey , American workers failed to use 421 million earned vacation days in 2005! Job pressures and work load are reasons some fail to use this time to relax and rebuild family ties.
The Wall Street Journal reports that researchers find that workers who vacations have fewer health problems and live longer and the beneficial effect lingers after the days off. Not using time off can lead to problems at work: stress and absenteeism.
"I think we take work too seriously. Europe runs just fine and they have a lot more vacation than we do, and they take longer stretches of vacation and things still get done," said Sabine Kuhn as reported in USA Today.
So this Labor Day, think of this hard fought right we enjoy and "chill out", "kick back" and live a longer and healthier life. The work will still be there when you return.
