The true meaning of Labor Day

Colorado was the first state to make Labor Day a legal holiday. New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey soon followed.

Seven years later, the United States Congress made Labor Day a national holiday. How the day was to be observed, was explicitly spelled out in the original proposal of the holiday. “A street parade to exhibit to the public, the strength and spirit de corps of the trade and labor organizations of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families.”

Later, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement. While Labor Day was set aside to honor the worker, conditions still hadn’t changed much in the workplace at that time.

Many people fought and died to gain better working conditions for themselves and for their coworkers. Children worked fourteen-hour days without sufficient bathroom facilities. Women worked in stifling sweatshops without fans for one or two dollars a day. Coal miners were hung for being labor activists. Chicago saw riots which ended in dead unionists and wounded sympathizers. Others toiled fifteen-hour days, without complain in order to feed their families.

The most outrageous example of unsafe working conditions and the need to protect workers was the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York City in 1911. 47 women leapt from the tenth floor of a burning building which had all the doors locked to prevent any “interruption of work.” One month later the company’s owners were indicted for manslaughter. The wakeup call was heard loudly and clearly by workers and employees.

Today, we enjoy the fruits of the people who marched in the streets, held rallies, fought for worker’s rights and changed legislation. We are fortunate in that we have the choice to work a forty-hour week for a decent wage. Of course, there are young, “up and coming” career minded people who choose to work a sixty hour week with little time off. They are in a position where they want to do this.

The laws enacted gave us this gift of choice. Those same laws provide safe environments in which to work as well as sick leave, vacations and breaks when needed.

We are secure in the knowledge that no matter how or where we “labor” we know w have recourse if our rights are violated. We take our workplace comforts and safety for granted. Once a year we are reminded of all this, at Labor Day.

We, in our modern society, would be unrecognizable to those who campaigned for an easier working life. We telecommute, use fax machines, cellphones and email. We work flexible times, so that parents can spend more time with their children or at the gym. We work from home or in a foreign country and the information is relayed in real time via the Internet. Many of us never feel that we are “laboring.” Yet, that is exactly what we are doing and enjoying it at the same time.

Unfortunately, many of the Labor Day celebrations are gone. The parades and the fireworks have dwindled. Speeches by local and national leaders are unusual and not an annual event. Memories fade and we take the holiday in stride.

Labor Day is a holiday where we celebrate ourselves. Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime resident of the American Federation of Labor said, “All the holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflict 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, (person) living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation.”