A long weekend is nice, isn’t it?
A three-day weekend is like being blessed with two Saturdays. Today, Monday, is everyone’s Sunday, serving as an extra day to travel, spend time at home with family, hang out and party with friends, get some homework done before the shortened four-day class week, or recover from a music festival like Made in America or Electric Zoo. Such free time from demanding responsibilities like a job or college classes is something for which to be thankful; all gratitude can be directed toward Labor Day.
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According to the United States Department of Labor, Labor Day is “Dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.” New York City was first to recognize such a day on September 5, 1882. After 12 years and 23 other states including Pennsylvania and New Jersey hopping on the bandwagon to celebrate workers, Congress passed an act in 1894 officially making the first Monday of September the legal holiday that is Labor Day.
However, these post-Industrial Era workers weren’t regarded in such a way without putting up a fight. Chad Broughton of The Atlanticwrites that “Labor Day in the 1880s, its first decade, was in many cities more like a general strike… than a leisurely day off.” Remember that celebration in New York City? It was actually a march of thousands of workers advocating for fair labor regulations such as an eight hour work day and fair economic systems.
Katia Hetter for CNN mentions that new labor protests still persist today. The Fight for $15 campaign, organized by Service Employees International Union in a coalition with fast food workers, pushes for a minimum wage of $15 of pay per hour, a fair living wage. Hetter also brings up Black Thursday, better known as Thanksgiving. People are making and signing multiple at Change.org and joining the Boycott Black Thursday Facebook page to encourage major retailers to stop taking employees away from their loved ones on a federal holiday.
Although labor movements are still active today, America’s past has seen stronger waves of protests in the past. Both Broughton and Hetter cite the decline in union membership as part of the reason. As of 2014, Broughton states “Union membership across the country has shrunk to less than one in eight from nearly one in four throughout the 1970s.” Additionally, Hetter compares the number of union members from 1983 to 2014: 17.7 million members down to 14.6 million members, respectively.
Like most things American, Labor Day was earned by hard-working people willing to reset an expected standard to achieve a better quality of life. This determination, while less people are exerting it through organized unions, has not faltered in the years leading up to today. With changing times and social as well as economic battles to fight, Americans are taking action to create better working conditions for their individual selves and each other.
Maybe between taking a last swim in the pool and cracking a beer at a backyard barbeque, take a minute or two to remember those workers who fought hard enough to be recognized for their efforts in labor. Scan a news headline illustrating the present fight for fair labor conditions. Finally, appreciate the day off that these people deserve, and don’t forget to enjoy your day off, too.
