Labor Day didn't start as a day off. It started as a day people took.
September 5, 1882. New York City. Workers walked off the job and marched through the streets, giving up a day's pay to do it, because nobody was going to hand them the day. The Central Labor Union organized it. There was no law behind them and no guarantee they'd have work on Wednesday.
Oregon wrote the holiday into law first, in 1887. Twenty-three more states followed. Congress didn't make it federal until June 28, 1894, under President Grover Cleveland — twelve years after that first parade.
What they were actually asking for
Read the demands and they sound almost modest now. A shorter workday. One day of rest. Children out of factories and into schools. Wages a person could plan a life around.
That last one is the whole thing, really. They weren't asking to work less because they didn't want to work. They were asking for work that left room in a life for something other than work. A dinner you sat down for. A kid's game you got to see. A Saturday.
Everything we now think of as normal — the weekend, the forty-hour week, the idea that a job shouldn't cost you your health — somebody stood in the street and asked for it first, and got told no for a long time before they got told yes.
Who I think about on this one
I drive a lot for work, all over this county, and at odd hours. So I see it.
The 5 a.m. shift change at the plants. Nurses walking out to their cars after a night shift, still in scrubs, not saying much. Teachers who were in the building on a Saturday getting a classroom ready on their own time. The soldiers, and the spouses running an entire household alone while they're gone — I did that for close to twenty years, and I can tell you nobody hands you anything for it.
Road crews in August in Texas. People working a second job they don't mention. Small business owners who haven't taken a real day off in years and won't today either.
Nobody is handing any of them anything, either. That's the part the 1882 marchers understood. It doesn't get given. It gets asked for, usually more than once.
If you're off today
Somebody you never met marched for that. Twelve years before it counted for anything.
And if you're working today — because hospitals and gas stations and gates and highways don't close — thank you. I hope somebody says that to you out loud today and not just on the internet.
Happy Labor Day.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, History of Labor Day.