Meanings for the Day
It’s Labor Day, and the last three day weekend of the year.
We now think of Labor Day as the end of summer. The actual national holiday is a creation of the labor movement, traditionally meant to honor those who labored in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.
The first governmental recognition came through city ordinances passed in the middle 1880s. The first state law recognizing labor came in Oregon. By the mid-1890s, half the states had Labor Day laws, and in 1894, Congress passed a national Labor Day law, setting aside the first Monday in September.
The role of unions and the labor movement itself has changed over time. Originally, the role of unions was to protect workers from dangerous conditions. And that was needed, since some employers provided no safety net for workers injured doing dangerous jobs.
While Labor Day has been closely associated with the labor union movement, it’s not as closely tied to that as it used to be because of the declining influence of such unions in the country. Percentage of U.S. workers represented by a union in 2022 dropped again, down to 11.3 percent. So now for more folks than ever, it’s simply another day off tied to the federal Monday holiday laws.
Labor Day also used to mean the end of summer and the start of K-12 school the next day. But those days are long passed, with many schools already having been in session for two weeks by now. Labor Day used to mean one last family bash, perhaps the end of a vacation, or a big picnic. And while I’m not really into this, it was tradition that you should not wear the color white after Labor Day. But I’m told even that is no longer the case.
Many countries around the world celebrate a worker’s day on May 1st. Legend has it that our Labor Day was chosen to be held on the first Monday in September because it would give folks a holiday in between Independence Day and Thanksgiving.
Well, at least that is still part of the tradition.
Perhaps the best focus for the day is to recognize not a union or a movement, but the individual who clocks in and out every day to help produce the goods that keep our country operating. They are the ones who should get noticed. And who deserve this day off.
