Most Americans look on Labor Day as the end of summer, the last time to fire up the grill, maybe take in a baseball game or get ready for football season, and getting the kids ready for another year of school.



The long and vast history of Labor Day is generally unknown to most. This isn’t taught in school or shown on television. Major news outlets usually don’t cover such a story on this day and tend to focus on the end of summer. So, why do we have Labor Day? It all started on a day in May now known as May Day.



In the late 19th century during the Industrial Revolution, Chicago became the beating heart of early industrial unionism. A 12-hour day and 7-day work week was not uncommon for workers. It was here and under these conditions that the fight for better working conditions – including weekends and an 8-hour work day – was launched.



On May 1, 1886, tens of thousands of Chicago workers went on a one-day strike for the 8-hour day. The employers struck back with the combined force of their own hired thugs and the state police. Two days later, police clashed with striking workers at the McCormick Reaper Works, killing six and wounding several others. Unions called for a protest rally the next day in Haymarket Square in downtown Chicago.



The next day, as workers took to the streets again, police began firing into the crowd, killing several workers and wounding many more. The leaders of the strike were arrested; four were hanged as “anarchists” and became known as the Haymarket Martyrs.



Eight years later, on May 11, 1894, employees of the Pullman Car Company in Chicago went on strike to protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives. That June, the American Railroad Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, called for a boycott of all Pullman railway cars, crippling railroad traffic nationwide. To break the strike, the federal government dispatched US army troops to Chicago who shot and killed 30 Pullman striking workers.



For those eight years from the action at Haymarket to the Pullman strike, the voice of American workers’ continued to grow and become stronger. No longer would workers settle for the scraps, while CEOs took in enormous profits. Because of this, Congress voted to institute the national holiday Labor Day to remember those American workers who stood up against poor working conditions.



131 years since the fights in Chicago, workers have continued our movement. Because of workers standing together in unions we have won the 8-hour day/40-hour week, unemployment compensation, occupational health and safety protections, the abolition of child labor, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Workers and their unions have also been allies in the ongoing fight for civil rights, voting rights, marriage equality, immigration reform, healthcare reform and much more. Nothing has ever been given to us. We have fought for every victory and no major gain has come without a fight.



On September 12, we will march in the Labor Day parade in New York City to remember those who have fought before us, and to get energized for the fights ahead. We still need to fight for $15/hour for all workers, speak out and against the destruction to our planet that has led to climate change, elect leaders who will fight for working families, and much more.



There are a lot of Americans that often forget where we came from. They forget how our history has led us to where we are today. And because of this, it has led to a corporate driven society that would rather bury the history of the American worker, rather than holding it up for emulation. The right wing hopes we will think only of Labor Day for its retail sales bargains and end-of-summer picnics. However, we will remember the heroes and their sacrifices that came before us.