Labor Day is here!

Hermano y Hermanas,

Labor Day may be the unofficial end of summer and the weekend that everyone gets together to be with family and friends but here’s a little History that I looked up on how Labor Day started. 

In 1894 before workers organized and formed unions, there were no regulations surrounding employment, and employers often took advantage of this. This meant that employees were required to work long hours, and with no job protection from discrimination and most times violence. Also, many young children were often put to work in factories, mines, railroads, warehouses, and other dangerous work environments. Working people began organizing and bargaining collectively to get better working conditions and higher wages the first Labor Day in New York City was on Tuesday, September 5, 1882. Following the deaths of 13 workers during the Pullman Strike in June of 1894, President Grover Cleveland made reconciliation with the labor movement a top priority of his administration, making Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894. During the major economic depression of the early 1890s, the Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages in its factories. Many pissed off workers joined the American Railway Union (ARU), led by Eugene V. Debs, which supported their strike by launching a boycott of all Pullman cars on all railroads. ARU members across the nation refused to switch Pullman cars onto trains. When these switchmen were disciplined, the entire ARU struck the railroads on June 26, 1894. Within four days, 125,000 workers on twenty-nine railroads had quit work rather than handle Pullman cars. In the years since, labor unions have served as a voice for workers of all professions by bargaining collectively with employers to advocate for better wages, working conditions, the eight-hour-workday, five-day work week, protection for children in the workplace and the federal minimum wage.

Happy Labor Day to all DC16 members and your Families and remember stay safe One Union, One Family, One Fight

Rich Morales

Representante Empresarial 

DC16-LU1176