Labor Day

Written By:  Andrew Eide

As previously mentioned my memory of Labor Day is with the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. I admire Mister Lewis for his life-long dedication to this worthy cause and I was sad to see him leave the hosting of the Telethon due to health reasons.

I am not here today to talk about the Telethon though. I am here to talk about the concept of Labor Day, where it started, and how it got to where it is today.

My research with the Department of Labor brought up some interesting facts which even I wasn’t fully aware of.

Labor Day, which is the first Monday in September, and for 2015 that is September 7th, is a creation of the labor movement and it is meant to focus our attention on the social and economic achievements of American workers.

Although there is no fact on who actually proposed a Labor Day holiday for workers we do have some possible answers. Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, the General Secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and Co-Founder of the American Federation of Labor, was the first in suggesting a day to honor workers.

However, many people believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, and not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. There appears to be more information to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, who later served as the Secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinist in Paterson, New Jersey, proposed the holiday in 1882.

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 2882, in New York City based on the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday one year later, on September 5, 1883.

It was in 1884 that the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday day, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of this day.

So in this current time we have a national Labor Day holiday on the first Monday in September. Please remember to take time to thank those workers, who over many decades, and for over a century, have worked hard, and they built this great country we enjoy.