The first Labor Day, on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City featured a parade of thousands of workers wearing their work clothes and carrying banners to signify their occupations.
“In these times of declining union membership, such demonstrations of working-class pride are rare. But in at least one way, today’s Labor Day celebrations mirror the past,” wrote Mark Noon, an assistant professor at Bloombsburg University, for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
At the first Labor Day, the parade ended at New York City’s Elm Park for a picnic with games, dancing, singing and of course, fireworks. The event reportedly bonded ethnic groups under a proverbial WOTUS banner (workers of the United States). Based on a New York Herald report, the landmark event saw American, English, Irish and German all hobnobbing.
Major strikes by workers and unions led to shorter hours, better pay and improved working conditions, such as during the Great Anthracite Strike of 1902, the Textile Workers Strike of 1934 and even the UPS Workers Strike of 1997. But according to a Rand Corp. recent study of a 2015 survey, Working Conditions in the United States, Americans are working longer hours, and many work extra on their free time to meet occupational demands.
Noon said that because the digital age has increased the length of the workday, this Labor Day, American workers should celebrate the way their forbears intended -- by putting down smartphones and hobnobbing with family, fellow workers and their families.
Except to take and post selfies, ofcourse.
