Labor Day. Unlike most U.S. holidays, it is a strange celebration without rituals. For most people it simply marks the last weekend of summer and the start of the school year.The holiday’s founders in the late 1800s envisioned something very different. They were looking for a means of unifying union workers and a reduction in work time.
When the first Labor Day occurred in 1882, unions covered only a small fraction of workers, balkanized and relatively weak. Their goal was to bring many small unions together to achieve a critical mass and power. The organizers of the first Labor Day were interested in creating an event that brought different types of workers together to meet each other and recognize their common interests.
However, the organizers
had a large problem: No government or company recognized the first Monday in September as a day off work. The issue was solved temporarily by declaring a one-day strike in New York City. All striking workers were expected to march in a parade and then eat and drink at a giant picnic afterwards.
Labor Day came about because workers felt they were spending too many hours and days on the job. In the 1830s, manufacturing workers were putting in 70-hour weeks on average. In 1890, the hours of work had dropped, although the average manufacturing worker still toiled in a factory 60 hours a week. These long working hours caused many union organizers to focus on winning a shorter eight-hour work day and getting workers more days off.
Surprisingly, many politicians and business owners were in favor of giving workers more time off because workers who had no free time weren't able to spend their wages on traveling, entertainment or dining out. As the U.S. economy expanded beyond farming and basic manufacturing, it became important to have consumers interested in buying the products and services. Shortening the work week was one way of turning the working class into the consuming class.
While the first Labor Day was created by striking, the idea of a holiday for workers was easy for politicians because proclaiming a holiday, like Mother’s Day, costs legislators nothing and benefits them by currying favor with voters.
In 1887, Oregon, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey all declared a special legal holiday in September to celebrate workers. Within 12 years, half the states in the country recognized Labor Day. It became a national holiday in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland signed the Labor Day bill into law. While many see the day as a national vacation, Congress’ proclamation covers only federal employees. It is up to each state to declare its own legal holidays.
Moreover, proclaiming any day an official holiday means little, as an official holiday does not require private employers and even some government agencies to give their workers the day off. Many stores are open on Labor Day. Essential government services in protection and transportation continue to function, and even less essential programs like national parks are open. Because not everyone is given time off on Labor Day, union workers as recently as the 1930s were being urged to stage one-day strikes if their employer refused to give them the day off.
Today most people in the U.S. think of Labor Day as a noncontroversial holiday. There is no family drama like at Thanksgiving, no religious issues like at Christmas. However, 100 years ago there was controversy.
The first controversy involved how militant workers should act on a day designed to honor workers. Communist, Marxist and socialist members of the trade union movement supported May 1 as an international day of demonstrations, street protests and even violence. More moderate trade union members, however, advocated for a September Labor Day of parades and picnics. In the U.S., picnics, instead of street protests, won the day.
There's also dispute over who suggested the idea. Earliest history credits Peter J. McGuire, who founded the New York City Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, with suggesting a date that would fall “nearly midway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving.” Later scholarship found that Matthew Maguire, a representative from the Machinists Union, actually was the founder of Labor Day. Maguire was seen as too radical;, the more moderate McGuire got the credit.
Today Labor Day is no longer about marching trade unionists. Instead, it is a confused holiday with no associated rituals. The original holiday was meant to handle a problem of long working hours and no time off. Although the battle over these issues would seem to have been won, this issue is starting to come back with a vengeance, not for manufacturing workers but for highly skilled white-collar workers, many of whom are constantly connected to work.
If you work all the time, start a new ritual that honors the original spirit of Labor Day. Give yourself the day off.
Jay L. Zagorsky is senior lecturer at Boston University. He wrote this piece for The Conversation.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Have we forgotten the true meaning of Labor Day? | Opinion
