Labor Day

Today September 3rd 2007 is Labor Day. This holiday was first celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882. The holiday was the idea of Peter J. McGuire of the Central Labor Union in New York City, who organized a parade and picnic featuring speeches by union leaders. It was intended to celebrate labor unions and their call for the eight-hour workday, and to give some recognition to the achievements of the American worker.

President Grover Cleveland signed into law the observance of Labor Day on 28 June 1894. Many of the labor laws those early activists fought for were finally passed in the 1930s, including the eight-hour workday and the 40-hour workweek. In the early twenty-first century, Labor Day parades, rallies, festivals, and speeches were still organized by labor unions across the country and often supported by political leaders.

With the advent of the labor laws sociologists predicted that in the coming decades Americans would work steadily fewer and fewer hours. But in fact, the opposite has happened. Today, according to a study released by the National Science Foundation, more than 25 million Americans work more than 49 hours each week. And 11 million spend 60 hours or more at work each week. Americans also take fewer vacation days than employees in any other industrialized nation, making Americans the hardest-working (or most overworked) industrialized nation on the planet.

Even though Labor Day started as a labor union celebration of the American worker most Americans tended to regard the day merely as the finale of a long summer of fun in which hot dogs, barbecues, and picnics reign.