On the first Monday of September every year, America positiveshonours pauses to honor its workers and the contributions they make to our nation's strengths strength and prosperity. The notion thatworks its work is valued, and even noble, dates to the ancients. " Seest thou a man diligent in his labor? " the Book of Proverbs asks, . "He shows stands shall stand before Kings. " In the United States, the belief goes back well over a century.
As a holiday, the Labour Labor Day celebration began at in the 1880s, in New York City . with an effort by labor unions to demonstrate the numbers, strengths strength and spirit of working man workingmenand womanwomen. They organise pyraids organized parades and rallies, and use used the demonstration demonstrations to press for new laws to benefit workers, such as standardising standardizing the eight-hour work dayworkday. The movements movement spread toother cities. In 1984, and in 1894 Congress made it a national holiday , honouring honoring all American workers.
The association with trade and labour labor unions has declined over the years. Today, for most people the holiday represents the last long weekend of summer, a time to relax and spend time with family and friends. There are still p parades and rallies, particular particularly inelection years, and also sporting events and picnics. For many, LabourLabor Day means a " no Labour labor" day, before the change of seasons and the start of a new school yearsyear.
OvertimeOver time, work in US the U. S. itself has changed, . MoreAmericans now are occupied in offices and services than to who toil ona the factory floor. The connection between the holiday and thenations nation's workers remains real, though, as recognition of the source is of so much of American economics America's economicand social achievements.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Since there was no groundwork to rationalize and show examples of the success of organized labor, it was nearly impossible to make it work at this time. If unions were going to work, striking would have to be effective and clearly, they weren't. In the 1860's, the National Labor Union was formed to unify workers in fighting for higher wages, an 8 hour work day and various social causes and it set the stage for many failing unions to come. In 1877, railroad workers in this union from across the country took part in an enormous strike that resulted in mass violence and very few reforms. Afterwards, a editorial in The New York Times stated: "the strike is apparently hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and spiteful demonstration of resentment by men too ignorant or too reckless to understand their own interests" (Document B). This editorial, which was clearly in favor of labor reforms, was acknowledging that this method of fighting was not going to work for the laborers at this time. A failure of this magnitude so early on in the movement should have been enough to put it to halt, however, year after year, strikes were breaking and little was being done in the workers favors. In 1892, workers at the Homestead Steel Plant near Pittsburg walked…
- 989 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In the mid-1800s, the National Labor Union was formed to unify workers in fighting for higher wages, lowered work hours, and various other social causes. However, this sets the stage for many failing unions to come. One of the first major strikes in this period would include the Great Railroad Strike. In the late 1800s, railroad workers from across the country participated in an enormous strike that resulted not only in mass violence, but also very few reforms. An editorial in The New York Times stated: "[T]he strike is apparently hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and spiteful demonstration of resentment by men too ignorant or too reckless to understand their own interests…" (Document B). This editorial, which was clearly in favor of labor reforms, was acknowledging that this method of reform was unsuccessful for the laborers at this time. A failure of this magnitude so early on in the movement should have been enough cease its continuation; however, year after year, strikes were breaking and little was being done in the workers’ favor. Another major strike would be the Homestead Strike and Lockout. In the late 1800s,…
- 1111 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
One reason and factor to why the labor unions and strikes were not all that much effective was that the newspapers as well as other propaganda was in general against the labor unions and chose to generally portray them as ignorant and foolish. This can be seen from Thomas Nast's cartoon in Harper's Weekly in 1878 where he showed that what the laborers were trying to do was the equivalent of killing the goose that lays the golden egg, with the employers being the goose and the laborers being the killer. Nast portrayed them as being foolish for not realizing that by striking against their employers they would subsequently be "killing" them.…
- 1070 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Answer: The major events in labour history are the division between craft and industrial unions, the influcen of the US-based AFL, and 1944 change in legal environment with the passage of legislation supporting collective bargaining.…
- 3801 Words
- 16 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Labor unrest came to a head in 1919 when workers began to protest in response to the difficulties caused bydemobilization. Workers went on strike…
- 2916 Words
- 11 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
The end of the shearer's strike had a big impact on the working class and Australia's political system. The unions fighting for their workers eventually resolved to political methods to try and reform the system. On August 1890, the Australian Labour Force was set up. This political group was governed by the working class and for the working class.…
- 602 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Late 19th century America was a time of both industrial prosperity and poverty among workers. It was run by grasping corporations and proprietors. Workers found themselves alone, amidst the rest of the nation, merely individuals under the control of the lavish Rockefellers and Carnegies. Entire families found themselves working 10 hours a day, 7 days a week in unsanitary conditions just to have enough money to pay for simple necessities like food and rent. The issue of lowering working hours, increasing wages, and humanizing working conditions quickly became indispensable. While organized labor groups such as the National Labor Union, The Knights of Labor, and the American Federation of Labor all strived to resolve these issues, victories were seldom. The crusade towards organized labor from 1875-1900 was unsuccessful in improving the position of workers vastly because of the initial failure of strikes, the grueling feelings of superiority of employers over employees and the lack of support from the government.…
- 797 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The 1949 longshore strike was a very important event in the development of the ILWU in Hawai‘i and also in the development of labor unity necessary for a modern labor movement. The 171 day strike changed the colonial wage pattern for Hawai‘i workers received lower pay than their West Coast co-workers, even though they worked for the same company and did the same work.…
- 497 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Until 1842 labor unions were illegal. In 1890 the Sherman act was passed that outlawed monopolies. Because people were trying to get fair wages and fait working conditions people promoted the labor union. In order to achieve what they wanted workers would go on strike. Some failed but some also prevailed. An example of one strike that worked was one against the railroads in 1886 where the owner had to restore the wages he had cut. One that didn’t work was in Chicago against the McCormick Reaper Works that lead to the Haymarket riots where many people including police men were killed or injured.…
- 533 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Eugene Debs, a union leader, wrote the Labor Day Message in 1897. He ran for president five times as a Socialist Party candidate, one in which he ran from prison. This essay focused on the working class and how they do not have a living wage. Debs believes that laborers are not receiving all the fruit of their labor and aims to shrink the disparity between the rich and the poor. “It is no utopian dream, not an ignis fatuus, not the product of imagination, not a mirage of the desert to allure and vanish, but a theory of life and labor in which the humblest individual owns himself and by his labor secures life, liberty, and happiness.”…
- 134 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
On May Day 1886, the workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. in Chicago began a strike in the hope of gaining a shorter work day. On…
- 656 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
During 1894, through 1915, Americans began to have more leisure time than their predecessors.* The main reason for this was industrial employers decreased working hours, and cut the work time on Saturdays in half.* Vacations began to be offered to workers as a gift from their employers, although most vacations at this time were unpaid. The workers soon became overworked. During the time of shortened work hours, they were made to work harder, and faster; this led to the desire in the worker to have leisure time away from their job and away from the city.*…
- 1258 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
working hours. To overcome the marginalization for the working class, they created labor movements and…
- 1033 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
They grew immensely in power during the over the years, advocating for better working conditions for laborers, such as shorter hours, better pay, and a safer work environment. Labor unions were significant because they succeeded in getting better working conditions for workers, and they provided a way for workers to have some sort of power against the big businesses that they worked for. Labor unions in the Gilded Ages were pretty successful. Between 1860 and 1891, wages increased by 72.5% and hours went down from an average of 9.9 hours a day to 9.4 (doc I) Labor unions also lobbied against child labor. Companies were looking for the cheapest labor possible, so they hired children because children could be paid less than adults. This was significant because workers did not want to compete with children, so they advocated for the creation of mandatory education for children, as it kept them out of factories. A cartoon depicting child labor illustrates this fear of children taking jobs away from adults (doc B) because they could be paid so cheap. Labor union leaders and members would have agreed with this cartoon. There were also large conventions where labor unions joined together, such as the International Labor Congress, which was held in Chicago in 1893. What Does Labor Want was a speech heard at this convention. It was given by Samuel Gompers, the founder of the American Federation of Labor, a labor union. This was…
- 1327 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
It was just another holiday near the end of summer that in a sense signified the coming of school just as Harry said. I never understood why people took it so seriously. Of course the first thing that pops to my mind about Labour Day is the, ‘Don’t wear white after Labour Day’ rule, but I always neglected it. It also signifies a lot in my household. My parents are typically more left wing on the political spectrum so I remember growing up, going to the parade or protest if you will, and celebrating all the achievements of the workers. It also meant that i was closer to seeing some of my friends that I hadn’t seen for two months. Showing them how much I’ve grown, since I was typically the short kid in the class and grew many inches over the course of summer, where I went, what I did, that kind of stuff. That’s pretty much all that it meant to me, just another holiday where my parents dragged me out to watch a parade and one that signified the coming of the new school…
- 516 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays