“[Labor Day] constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”
The origins of the observance are debatable, but New York’s
Central Labor Union celebrated the first Labor Day on September 5, 1882 and by
1884 the first Monday in September had been designated as the official “workingman’s
holiday”. The first official recognition of Labor Day came in the form of local
and state ordinances with Oregon the first state to ratify a Labor Day bill on
February 12, 1887 and on June 28 of that same year Congress passed an act
making the first Monday of September a national holiday.
In the years since its inception, the meaning of Labor Day
has transformed. Today being pro-union is out of vogue and if you polled people
on the street, most probably would connect the Labor Day holiday with the end
of summer instead of the triumph of unions. Humanity easily forgets its past
and each generation tends to take what the previous one fought to achieve for
granted. In our modern era we assume certain worker’s rights will be respected,
that we’ll get a handful of holidays a year, and that we’ll be paid for our work,
but it wasn't always that way.
So, to bring it back to reality, here’s a little ditty from Van and Schenck that says it perfectly - the rich get rich and the poor get laid off…
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