Labor Day

(September 5, 2011) Today, the first Monday in September, is Labor Day, a national holiday honoring all workers. Americans traditionally consider it the last hurrah of summer and celebrate with picnics and other gatherings with family and friends.

The first Labor Day in the United States was observed on Sept. 5, 1882, by the Central Labor Union (CLU) of New York. It was proposed by Peter J. McGuire of the American Federation of Labor in May 1882.

Oregon was the first state to make it a holiday in 1887. By the time it became a federal holiday in 1894, 30 states officially celebrated Labor Day.

Following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. marshals at Chicago's Haymarket Square during the Pullman Strike in 1894, President Grover Cleveland reconciled with the labor movement.

The Pullman Strike was a nationwide conflict between labor unions and railroads. The conflict began in the town of Pullman, Ill., on May 11 when about 3,000 employees of the Pullman Palace Car Co. began a wildcat strike in response to recent reductions in wages, bringing traffic west of Chicago to a halt.

The American Railway Union, the nation's first industry-wide union, led by Eugene V. Debs, subsequently became embroiled in what The New York Times described as "a struggle between the greatest and most important labor organization and the entire railroad capital" that, at its peak, involved some 250,000 workers in 27 states.

Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress, passed unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike.

The September date originally chosen by the CLU of New York and observed by many of the nation's trade unions for the past several years was selected rather than the more widespread International Workers' Day (International Workers' Day, May 1, also known as May Day, is a celebration of the international labor movement. It commonly sees organized street demonstrations and marches by working people and their labor unions throughout most of the world. It is a national holiday in more than 80 countries.) because Cleveland was concerned that observance of the latter would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket affair, which it had been observed to commemorate.

All U.S. states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories have made the first Monday of September, Labor Day, a statutory holiday.