Special Issue: A History of Labor Day

Since the inception of Labor Day, the American worker has changed dramatically. Perhaps our view of the holiday should change, too.

On May 4, 1886, union leaders and anarchists organized a rally at Haymarket Square in Chicago. The goal of the event was to protest the killing and wounding of several workers by the police during a strike the previous day at the McCormick Reaper Works. Toward the end of the rally, a group of policemen arrived to disperse the crowd. As the police advanced, an individual who was never identified threw a bomb at them. The police and members of the crowd opened fire, and chaos ensued. Seven police officers and at least one civilian died as a result of the violence, and a large number of other people were injured.

Eight anarchists were arrested, though the evidence linking these men with the violence was thin.  Four of the men were later hanged, and a fifth committed suicide. Eventually, the three remaining men were pardoned.  The Haymarket Riot and the subsequent convictions rippled through the nation, with public opinion split between pro-labor and others decrying the chaos they attributed to anarchists (and foreigners).  For those who sympathized with the plight of labor, the riot added to the growing impetus for a holiday dedicated exclusively to Laborers.  

Labor Day is inextricably linked to 19th-century unions.  In 1882, Peter J. McGuire, a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, suggested setting aside a day for a “general holiday for the laboring classes” to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.” Or was McGuire the first?  One contention is that machinist Matthew Maguire took the lead in proposing a special labor holiday.  On September 5, 1882, the Central Labor Union held the first Labor Day parade in New York City.  Around 10,000 participated in the march that began at city hall and ended at Union Square, though this number was far less than the organizers had predicted. The workers included cigar makers, dressmakers, printers, shoemakers, bricklayers, and other tradesmen. The lack of participants was understandable, as the men had no permission to take the day off and risked their jobs in an era of no unemployment benefits, welfare, or family leave.  

Partly due to sympathy engendered by the riot, partly because 23 states had already designated Labor Days of their own, in 1894 Congress declared the first Monday in September a national holiday to honor the contributions of the country’s workers.  Ironically, the law was signed off by President Grover Cleveland, an ardent pro-business Bourbon Democrat.  Yet context is critical.  After the Panic of 1893, one company, Pullman, began laying off workers and reducing wages. However, the company was also a landlord of its workers and did not reduce rents or provide relief.  The result was a strike that, at one point, involved over 250,000 laborers.  Whatever the evolution of Labor Day over the preceding years, Cleveland was forced to sign the law to appease a mass of disgruntled union workers.  According to the US Department of Labor, Labor Day “is an annual celebration of American workers’ social and economic achievements.”  

The tenor of our national holidays usually has a holistic nature that involves all Americans. 

Independence Day is a self-evident event for every citizen.  At a time when the United States was overwhelmingly Christian, a Christmas Holiday would seem logical. Thanksgiving could trace its roots back to the beginnings of the Republic.  Yet Thanksgiving’s inception as a national holiday, like Labor Day and later Juneteenth, involved political expediency. It was Lincoln in 1863 who set the date as the last Thursday in November.  His goal was to rally the population as the Civil War dragged on.  It is hard to imagine Juneteenth going from state to national holiday with such rapidity had the George Floyd riots not taken place coupled with the presidency and Congress unified under the Democratic Party.  

There were no “federal holidays” until 1870, when Congress passed a bill, and Ulysses Grant signed off on these events.  The first were New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Christmas and Thanksgiving.  Since then, other dates have been added, such as George Washington’s birthday, Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, and more recently, Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth.  

Sound arguments can be made for maintaining all these holidays.  But does the same apply to Labor Day? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unions today comprise 14.4 million workers, or roughly 10% of the workforce.  Of these, nearly half are public sector workers, including teachers and librarians. Of all public sector jobs, union members comprise almost 40% of the total.  

Among the private sector are workers in the movie industry and utilities, not quite the railroad workers of the Pullman saga.  The type of union laborer we imagine, the person in the mine, driving a truck, crafting steel, working on an oil rig, building a die, or assembling an automobile, is now around 13 million or less than 9% of the total workforce.  

When populists like JD Vance or progressives like Bernie Sanders (who increasingly mimic each other) extol the virtue of the American “Worker,” who exactly are they describing? In Vance’s case, “It’s about the auto worker in Michigan, the factory worker in Wisconsin who makes things with their hands and is proud of American craftsmanship, and the energy worker in Pennsylvania and Ohio.” Are the other 90% of workers not, in fact, workers?  During my business career, I routinely put in 10-11 hour days, but as my output often involved sitting behind a computer or meeting in boardrooms attired in a blazer and slacks, I do not imagine I fit that description of Vance’s “worker.”  The most powerful unions are no longer the Teamsters nor the AFL-CIO.  Public teachers control the most influential of unions today.  Is a teacher a “laborer?”  

A worker, in the politically descriptive sense, is truly a manufacturer. Yet this nation has a manufacturing issue, and it is not about unemployed workers. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, the country will have 2.1 million unfilled positions by 2030. It is good politics to lament the lack of manufacturing jobs, but that messaging does not align with workforce reality.   

One of the fastest growing sectors in the American economy is healthcare which has nearly twice the number of workers than manufacturing.  And of these just one quarter are doctors and nurses.  The rest include everything from an MRI tech to the insurance adjustor working for Aetna.  

Amidst the Labor Day barbeques and the last summer weekend family jaunts, people should ponder a new vision of the American worker. Though our manufacturing productivity is at record highs, that does not correlate with where the people work.  Regarding employment, we are a service nation, not a manufacturing one. In 2024, Labor Day is an anachronism.  It is a sop to a constituency from a bygone era. Yet, it is hard to say no to that three-day weekend at the end of summer.

AD Tippet is the founder and Publisher of the Conservative Historian. Aves has conducted extensive research in Political, Religious, Social, and Educational history across all eras and geographies. He has been writing and podcasting for over 12 years. In 2020, he published his first book, The Conservative Historian. He has degrees in history, education, and an MBA. @BelAves