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Labor Day Celebrations

September 5, 2011 by · Comments Off on Labor Day Celebrations 

Labor Day CelebrationsLabor Day Celebrations, Today America celebrates Labor Day – a day to appreciate the contribution of workers to the strength, prosperity and welfare of our country.

Labor Day was first observed on September 5, 1882, the Central Union of New York, a union early. Peter McGuire, a prominent figure in the American labor movement, introduced a resolution calling on workers to lead a parade through the streets of New York on the first Monday in September, the day chosen because it is halfway between Day Independence Day and Thanksgiving. More than 30,000 workers marched in the parade.

Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 after the death of 34 workers during the Pullman strike, a national conflict between unions and railroads. Approximately 3,000 employees of the Pullman Palace Car Co. of Chicago, began a strike in response to reductions in wages, so the traffic west of Chicago to an end.

The American Railway Union, America’s first industry-wide union was involved in the strike, involving 250,000 workers in 27 states. President Grover Cleveland sent federal troops to end the strike. For fear of further conflict, the laws on Labor Day a day of national celebration was rushed in Congress and signed into law six days after the end of the strike.

Enforcement activities and celebration of Labor Day is presented in the first proposal of the party – a parade showing people the strength and spirit of common business and labor organizations in the community, followed by a festival recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the model for all the celebrations of Labor Day.

Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed on the economic and civic holidays.

Labor Day celebrations have undergone change in recent years and now include picnics, barbecues, fireworks, sports and public events. Labor Day is less important now as a celebration of workers and more like the end of summer.

Samuel Gompers, founder and long-term president of the American Federation of Labor, summed up the holiday, ie:

“Labor Day … is different from other holidays…. All other holidays … are related to conflicts and struggles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day … is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation. “

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