Labor Day - Honoring Our Workers!

On September 6th of 2010, the United States and Canada will once again celebrate Labor Day. Labor Day is a United States Federal Holiday meant to honor the working people, but has anyone ever wondered the reason behind Labor Day? The first Labor Day was celebrated on September 5th of 1882, but it was not until 1894 that Labor Day was made into a national holiday.

In 1894, the Pullman Strike went into effect. On June 26th, 125,00 people employed at Pullman Palace Car company went on strike because of reduction in wages. The strike put a stand still to traffic coming in and out of Chicago. To make it worse for the strikers, the railroad company hired replacement workers.

On June 29th, after a peaceful gathering, a riot ensued. President Grover Cleveland ordered US Marshals and 12,000 US Army troops to intervene. Cleveland used the reason that the strike interfered with the delivery of federal mail, was a threat to the public and ignored federal injunctions. The US Marshals and Army troops arrived on July 6th, bringing in more violence to the city.

By the time the riot finally ended, 13 strikers were dead and 57 were wounded. The strike cost $340,00 in damaged, by today's standard that would equal $8,818,000.

After the strike was over, Cleveland put labor issues at the top of his priority list, and within six days of the strike ending Labor Day was signed into a law as a national holiday.

Today, many people forget the true meaning behind labor day. For some, it is the end of summer, while others see it as the beginning of the football season. Other people see it as time to send the kids back to school.

I would like to break from that trend and remind not only myself, but everyone, what Labor is truly about. It is about honor those that work day in and day out for a few extra dollars. I see the banks closing, people with money sipping their drinks on the beach during the holiday weekend. While, it is those individuals that labor away day in and day out that must work on the holiday that was meant to honor them.

With that, I hope everyone will post a comment, honoring someone they know that has labored away. I will like to be the first one to do so by honoring my mother. She was a single mother, and worked two jobs to support her two daughters. Now, years later, she works at Wal-Mart making 10 something an hour. On forty hours per week, she not only has to support herself, but her ailing husband, my disabled sister and her two children.