Labor Day as in Labor Union Day is what this holiday is all about. It’s our holiday, us union members. Don’t ever let bosses or anti-worker politicians tell you any different. 

Those needing a history refresher, here you go:

“The idea of a “workingmen’s holiday,” celebrated on the first Monday in September, caught on in other industrial centers across the country, and many states passed legislation recognizing it. Congress would not legalize the holiday until 12 years later, when a watershed moment in American labor history brought workers’ rights squarely into the public’s view. On May 11, 1894, employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago went on strike to protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives.

On June 26, the American Railroad Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, called for a boycott of all Pullman railway cars, crippling railroad traffic nationwide. To break the Pullman strike, the federal government dispatched troops to Chicago, unleashing a wave of riots that resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen workers.

In the wake of this massive unrest and in an attempt to repair ties with American workers, Congress passed an act making Labor Day a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories. On June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed it into law. More than a century later, the true founder of Labor Day has yet to be identified.

Many credit Peter J. McGuire, cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, while others have suggested that Matthew Maguire, a secretary of the Central Labor Union, first proposed the holiday.”

I’ve been lucky enough to work Union most of my adult life and since then being even luckier to be asked to transition into full time international staff roles of some of the biggest labor unions and organizations around. Organized Labor is my religion and life now. I saw its value from watching my dad fight for a union at his workplace and now he is retired, full pension and has cradle-to-the-grace healthcare of which their is no annual premium and is considered a Cadillac in industry terms. Every advancement for worker’s rights, retirement protection and job safety is thanks to unions. No boss or politician ever wanted to just give it workers...it was unions that fought and won them.

This holiday weekend give thanks to Unions and for union workers. They built the Middle Class and the American Dream.

Solidarity, 

Matt