“In response, all around the world, workers movements adopted May 1 to commemorate the Haymarket Massacre and to symbolize the ongoing fight for worker rights and worker justice. So why doesn’t the United States celebrate Labor Day on May 1 as well? On May 11, 1894, again in Chicago, workers at the Pullman Palace Car Co. called for a strike to protest wage cuts and the killing of a worker. In solidarity, the American Railroad Union called for a boycott on working in all Pullman railway cars. Within a matter of days, train traffic west of Detroit ground to a halt. In response, President Grover Cleveland called in the Army to suppress the strikes. Protests broke out. At least 26 people were killed. The government collusion with big business, both in the court system and in the deployment of the military, was unprecedented and severe. The labor community was enraged. And so, the story goes, President Cleveland, realizing he had to do something quick to appease the labor movement, pressed for Labor Day to become a national holiday. But Cleveland worried that tying the holiday to May 1 would encourage Haymarket-like protests and tacitly strengthen communist and socialist movements that had backed the May 1 commemoration around the globe. And so through a twist of choices and coincidences, the first Monday of September was chosen to be the official “Labor Day” in the United States. Labor Day, then, shouldn’t just serve as a commemoration of the hard work of American laborers and all they have contributed to America’s history, infrastructure and prosperity. Labor Day should also serve as a reminder of not only how companies can undervalue and undermine their workers but how our government provide dangerous or even deadly levels of support to bad employers.”
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