Putting The "Labor" Back In Labor Day
by Region 8 Webmaster John T. Davis

On Monday, September 06, 2004 the country will once again observe Labor Day. This federal holiday dates back to 1895, when Congress passed a law observing the first Monday in September as Labor Day.

Over the course of time many Americans have come to view Labor Day as simply the last bash of summer. We have come to use Labor Day as a measurement that summer is over, when actually the day means much more than that. It is a day set aside to honor America’s workers and the contributions they have made to build the mightiest nation on the Earth. See what separates the United States from third world countries is not the rich and poor, for these countries have rich and poor as well. It is the working class – the Middle American who has carried our hopes and dreams into reality.

For 364 days a year the business headlines are filled with the Bill Gates, Donald Trumps and Warren Buffets of the world, but on that one day a year our attention turns to America’s workers. Our history is filled with visionaries such as Henry Ford, Ransom Olds and David Buick. However, there is little mention of the engineers who charted their visions into actuality or the workers who actually assembled the dreams. The media reports of corporate heroes who lead the charge as fortunes are made and society enhanced. But we never read of those on the front lines making the difference.

Now this is not to diminish the role that has been played by America’s corporate visionaries. Without the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and others, our economy would never had grown to be the greatest in the world. But we must remember, that any successful venture requires those at all levels of an organization to be great. Labor Day is designed to remember those workers – the nameless, faceless millions who have fed the machine of industry.

The iron horse led the charge in taming the American frontier out west. The coming of the railroads brought commerce and towns to areas that had for centuries been wide-open prairies. However, that iron horse needed steel rails to gallop on as immigrant workers from China, Ireland, German and other countries graded the roadbed, laid the ties, drove the spikes that put American commerce westward.
The first spike of growth in America took place in the East, as Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Washington D.C. became major cities. Buildings where erected, highways built and dreams planted. The promise of a better life spread across Europe, as Ellis Island watched millions cross that gangway to hope from steerage accommodations. Each wide-eyed and idealistic about the future and a new chance.

Still other Americans arrived in the belly of slave ships, with no choice and no voice. It would take generations before these Americans dreams could be realized. Still, while they had no voice, their sweat helped drive an industry that fed the American economy. Chicago became the gateway to the Mid-West as agriculture created markets, produced fortunes, fed and housed families and built the land.

In 1869, 17 year Irish immigrant Peter McGuire began an apprenticeship in a piano shop in New York City. In the spring of 1872, Peter McGuire and 100,000 workers went on strike and marched through the streets, demanding a decrease in the long working day.

This event convinced Peter that an organized labor movement was important for the future of workers' rights. He spent the next year speaking to crowds of workers and unemployed people, lobbying the city government for jobs and relief money.

The idea of organizing workers according to their trades spread around the country. Factory workers, dockworkers and toolmakers all began to demand and get their rights to an eight-hour workday, a secure job and a future in their trades. Peter McGuire and laborers in other cities planned a holiday for workers on the first Monday in September, halfway between Independence Day and Thanksgiving Day.

On September 5, 1882 the first Labor Day parade was held in New York City. Twenty thousand workers marched in a parade up Broadway. They carried banners that read
"LABOR CREATES ALL WEALTH," and "EIGHT HOURS FOR WORK, EIGHT HOURS FOR REST, EIGHT HOURS FOR RECREATION!" Peter McGuire and Matthew Maguire, a machinist from Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday. Within the next few years, the idea spread from coast to coast, and all states celebrated Labor Day. In 1894, Congress voted it a federal holiday.

The 1800th century passed into the 1900th, as major cities grew and flourished across the land. Detroit became the birthplace of the “horseless carriage” as this new invention became the rage of the land. Automobiles provided America with personal transportation. The demand created an economy all its own, that drove the creation of factories to assemble this newfound wonder. Of course components would be required for their assembly, so the economy flourished again. As more and more Americans began to own their own vehicle, the need for roads grew. This provided another boost to the economy. Everyone knows that vehicles need fuel and repairs, so another subset of jobs were created.

As jobs and workers multiplied, so did the need to provide rights for the workers. In December of 1936, key GM plants in Flint go on “sit down strikes” for union representation. The strikes ended on February 11, 1937 with GM recognizing the UAW as the bargaining agent for its workers. A. Philip Randolph helped form the Brotherhood of Pullman Porters in 1925, and fought for representation for porters until 1937.

Over the next 30 years UAW visionary Walter Reuther and others such as A. Philip Randolph would fight for worker’s rights at bargaining tables and in the halls of Congress.

The last century saw millions of working class heroes making a difference. From the engineers who designed the products, to the production workers who manufactured them, to the supervisor who runs the department, to the skilled trades who keep the machines going, to the transportation workers who deliver the goods, to the warehouse workers who stock them, to the sales people who tout goods, it takes everyone to make this economy great. This is what Labor Day is about; recognizing those who are never mentioned in industry.

This Monday, enjoy your day off with family and friends. Cook out, swim while the water is still warm and enjoy the last days of summer. However, stop for a moment to reflect on the great men and women who have built this country. While their names may not be recorded in history, their handiwork is all around us.