By the time Labor Day was officially recognized as a federal holiday in 1894, 30 states had their own tributes to workers and their achievements.
History documents that workers in the 1800s worked 12-hour days, 7 days a week. That included children who worked alongside their parents in mills and factories. The labor unions organized and fought for the changes so familiar to most American workers now: paid time off, and safe working conditions.
But it didn’t come without a protracted fight, including physical retaliation against protesting workers, such as the Haymarket Riot in Chicago, a violent confrontation immortalized as a symbol of the international struggle for worker’s rights. Twelve years before Labor Day become real, 10,000 workers took to New York City streets. In a march from City Hall to Union Square, these determined workers walked off the job for the day — losing precious pay — to take part in the parade.
I couldn’t help but notice the karmic synergy of this moment as 2021 workers are either walking away from their jobs or pledging to do so. In a survey last month, 55% of the surveyed workers said they are likely to look for new employment within the next year. Bankrate’s August 2021 Job Seeker Survey also revealed that 28% of working Americans who aren’t searching for new jobs expect to during the next year. Additionally, in another of the report’s key findings, respondents identified three top work priorities: flexible working arrangements, higher pay and, ironically, job security.
The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit, is no passing trend, but a significant shift.
This Labor Day holiday arrives just as the topic of workers and their labor are dominating public forums and private discussions. Maybe for the first time in a long time, the holiday’s focus is centered on the original reason for establishing the holiday: on the workers, the inspiration for the annual salute.
Initially, the pandemic actually raised the stock of some American workers, from the appreciation for the frontline workers in the hospitals and testing centers to the essential staffers in grocery stores and behind the wheel of city buses. But as the pandemic dragged on, and millions of workers were forced to join the ranks of the unemployed, many found themselves standing in food lines and at risk of losing housing despite federal and state emergency financial support.
Who could have predicted that in the wake of closed businesses and millions of layoffs, workers would find their voices? Getting here has been painful. Like those pre-Labor Day demonstrators, today’s workers are immersed in a post-COVID re-assessment of work, reclaiming the value and purpose of their labor.
A hundred and twenty-seven years later, this first Monday in September has become a cultural touchstone — the unofficial end of summer. The holiday’s foundational purpose may still mostly be eclipsed by the traditional cookouts, retail sales and parades, but the power of this moment can’t be ignored. And workers may mark it as the first step of labor’s new chapter.
