Have we forgotten the true meaning of Labor Day? • Indiana Capital Chronicle

Labor Day is a national holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September each year. Unlike most American holidays, it's a strange celebration with no rituals aside from shopping and barbecues. For most people, it simply marks the last weekend of summer and the start of the school year.

The founders of the holiday in the late 19th century had something very different in mind than what it is today. They were looking for two things: a way to unite union members and a reduction in working hours.

History of Labor Day

The first Labor Day took place in New York City in 1882 under the leadership of the Central Labor Union.

In the 19th century, unions covered only a small portion of workers, were fragmented, and relatively weak. The goal of organizations like the Central Labor Union and more modern counterparts like the AFL-CIO was to bring many small unions together to achieve critical mass and power. Organizers of the first Labor Day wanted to create an event where different types of workers could come together to get to know each other and recognize their common interests.

However, the organizers faced a major problem: neither the government nor the company recognized the first Monday in September as a non-working day. The problem was temporarily solved by declaring a one-day strike in the city. All striking workers were to take part in a parade and then have something to eat and drink at a huge picnic.

The New York Tribune reporter who covered the event felt that the entire day felt like one long political barbecue with “pretty boring speeches.”

Why was Labor Day invented?

Labor Day was introduced because workers felt they were spending too many hours and days at work.

In the 1830s, industrial workers worked an average of 70 hours per week. Sixty years later, in 1890, working hours had decreased, but the average industrial worker still toiled 60 hours per week.

Because of these long working hours, many union leaders focused on shortening the eight-hour day. They also wanted to give workers more days off, such as Labor Day, and shorten the work week to just six days.

These early organizers clearly won, as the latest data shows that manufacturing workers average just over 40 hours a week, and most people work only five days a week.

Surprisingly, many politicians and business owners were actually in favor of giving workers more free time. Because workers who had no free time could not spend their wages on travel, entertainment or eating out.

As the U.S. economy expanded beyond agriculture and basic manufacturing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became important for businesses to find consumers interested in buying the products and services produced in ever-increasing quantities. Shortening the workweek was one way to transform the working class into a consuming class.

Common misunderstandings

The common misconception is that Labor Day is a national holiday and everyone has the day off. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While the first Labor Day was created by strikes, the idea of ​​a special holiday for workers was easy for politicians to support. This was easy because declaring 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 of the states recognized Labor Day as a holiday. It became a national holiday in June 1894 when President Grover Cleveland signed the Labor Day Act. While most people interpreted this as recognition of the day as a national holiday, the congressional proclamation only applies to federal employees. Each state is left to establish its own legal holidays.

Furthermore, declaring a day an official holiday has little meaning, because an official holiday does not require private employers and even some government agencies to give their employees the day off. Many businesses are open on Labor Day. Important government services such as security and transportation continue to function, and even less important programs such as national parks are open. Because not everyone gets Labor Day off, as recently as the 1930s, union members were encouraged to stage a one-day strike if their employer did not give them the day off.

Last year, in his Labor Day statement, Obama called on Americans to “mark this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies and activities that recognize the contributions and resilience of working Americans.”

However, the proclamation does not officially state that anyone has the day off.

Controversy: Militants and Founders

Today, most people in the United States consider Labor Day to be an undisputed holiday.

There is no family drama like Thanksgiving and no religious issues like Christmas. However, 100 years ago there was controversy.

The first point of contention was how militant workers should behave on a day that should be dedicated to 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, which continues to this day.

However, more moderate union members argued for a Labor Day in September with parades and picnics. In the USA, picnics prevailed instead of street protests.

There is also dispute over who proposed the idea. The earliest historical records, from the mid-1930s, credit Peter J. McGuire, founder of the New York City Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, with proposing a date in 1881 that would be “approximately midway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving” and would “publicly demonstrate the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations.”

Later research from the early 1970s provides compelling evidence that Matthew Maguire, a representative of the machinists' union, was indeed the originator of Labor Day. However, because Matthew Maguire was considered too radical, the honor was given to the more moderate Peter McGuire.

We will probably never know who actually came up with the idea, but you can vote online here and express your opinion.

Have we lost the spirit of Labor Day?

Today, Labor Day is no longer about union members marching through the streets with banners and their work tools. Instead, it is a confusing holiday with no rituals attached to it.

Originally, the holiday was intended to solve the problem of long working hours and lack of free time. Although the battle over these issues seems to have been won long ago, this problem is now breaking out again with a vengeance, not for workers in production, but for highly qualified employees, many of whom are constantly connected with work.

If you work all the time and never really take a vacation, start a new ritual that honors the original spirit of Labor Day. Give yourself the day off. Don't go to work. Turn off your phone, computer, and other electronic devices that connect you to your daily grind. Then go to a barbecue like the original participants did over a century ago and celebrate having at least one day off a year!