Why is Labor Day a national holiday?
In 1882, a labor union in New York organized the first Labor Day celebration.
By the mid 1890s, a number of states had officially recognized the holiday,
and President Grover Cleveland made it a federal holiday in 1894.
What was the political climate at the time?
As a result of the industrial revolution, working conditions were horrible
in the late 1800's.
Unions were just starting to form in order to counter balance the industrial
giants of the day.
So, the first Labor Day in New York was an effort by union workers
to bring attention to workers' rights.
We often take unions for granted, but when were laws passed
giving a worker the right to join a union without fear of retaliation
from their employer?
Through the 1920s and 30s, several federal laws were passed, such as
the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which gave workers the right
to form and join unions without fear of retribution from company management.
At the time those early labor laws were written, workers were
treated horribly, worked in unsafe conditions, and were underpaid.
But has the pendulum swung too far the other way? Are unions too powerful?
- Many people, including several economists feel that unions
can damage the economy by holding monopolies over labor forces, inflating
wages, and limiting company decisions.
- From the 1950s through about 1970, American union membership was
at its peak. About 40 percent of all workers were union members.
- But union membership is on the decline. Only 14 percent of U.S. workers
are currently union members.
Labor Day is a celebration of the American worker, and although we must
be careful to balance the power of unions against the need for a competitive
economy, we shouldn’t forget the sacrifices made by workers, both
today and in the past.
