On September 5, 1882, some 10,000 workers assembled in New
York City to participate in America's first Labor Day parade. After marching
from City Hall to Union Square, the workers and their families gathered in Reservoir
Park for a picnic, concert, and speeches. This first Labor Day celebration was
initiated by Peter J. McGuire, a carpenter and labor union leader who a year
earlier cofounded the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, a precursor
of the American Federation of Labor. McGuire had proposed his idea for a holiday
honoring American workers at a labor meeting in early 1882. New York's Central
Labor Union quickly approved his proposal and began planning events for the
second Tuesday in September. McGuire had suggested a September date in order
to provide a break during the long stretch between Independence Day and Thanksgiving.
While the first Labor Day was held on a Tuesday, the holiday was soon moved
to the first Monday in September, the date we continue to honor. History has
almost forgotten Peter McGuire, an Irish-American cabinet maker and pioneer
unionist who proposed a day dedicated to all who labor.
Old records describe him as a red-headed, fiery, eloquent leader
of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. McGuire introduced his idea formally
at a meeting of the Central Labor Union on May 18,1882. "Let us have, a
festive day during which a parade through the streets of the city would permit
public tribute to American Industry," he said. The following September
New York workers staged a parade up Broadway to Union Square. Few, if any, workers
got the day off. Most were warned against marching in the parade with the threat
of getting fired. Despite the warning, more than 10,000 workers showed up for
the march. Led by mounted police, bricklayers in white aprons paraded with a
band playing "Killarney." The marchers passed a reviewing stand crowded
with Knights of Labor: a holiday was born. McGuire's holiday moved across the
country as slowly as did recognition of the rights of the working man.
Twelve years later, on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland,
long a foe of organized labor, but under voter pressure, signed a Labor Day
holiday bill. Earlier that same year, President Cleveland's most famous labor
conflict, the Pullman strike in Chicago, had forced the president to call up
federal troops. Employees of the Pullman Co., which produced sleeping cars for
passenger trains, protested wage cuts. Led by Eugene V. Debs, the American Railway
Union (ARU) in sympathy refused to haul railroad cars made by the company. A
general railway strike ensued, interfering with mail delivery. When the ARU
refused a court order to return to work, Cleveland sent in federal troops. "If
it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a postal card
in Chicago, that card will be delivered," he said. Rioting broke out: strikers
were killed and leaders jailed, but even as the strike was broken, the labor
movement gained steam. Strong support for the feisty American labor movement
emerged in worker dominated cities like Detroit, where thousands of men and
women struck the plants and shops and marched the streets demanding a fair shake.
Few cities are more identified with the advances of American workers than the
Motor City. With the completion of the Erie Canal in 1837, Detroit's population
had grown to 10,000. Housing boomed and overworked carpenters became some of
the first Detroiters to organize into unions. On April 3, 1837, the city's first
strike broke out among the carpenters and journeymen seeking 10-hour work days
and $2 pay.
Joining the movement, organized printers in 1839 created the
state's first union paper, The Rat Gazette. The term "Rat" was coined
to describe the nonunion workers who spied for the bosses on organzing efforts.
Union organizing centered on the skilled-trades workers of Detroit. Early organizing
efforts drew sharp reaction from the employers, who formed their own organization
to counter unionizing activity, the Detroit Employers Association. They immediately
fired and blacklisted workers identified as union organizers, calling them "unwanted
undesirables". The slogan of the Employers Association, "Prevention
Is Better Than the Cure," struck fear in the heart of immigrant laborers
seeking a better life in Detroit and helped make Detroit famous as an anti-union
town. Detroit's first Labor Day celebration was on Aug. 16, 1884, according
to Adelbert M. Dewey, one of the union pioneers. A program held in Recreation
Park attracted 50,000 Knights of Labor and the Trade and Labor Assembly, making
it a popular and real holiday. The large crowd of laborers marched proudly and
defiantly down Woodward Avenue to the park. Labor leaders included Richard Trevellick,
a ship carpenter from Detroit, who was called the "old warhorse" of
the labor movement. His efforts earned him blacklisting by the shipyards. He
became president of the National Labor Congress, the first national labor organization
in the United States. Detroit workers later built a house for him in the western
part of the city and presented it to him as compensation for his organizing
efforts.
By 1900 the trend toward using the holiday largely for recreation
so tempted the tired workers that unions affiliated with the Detroit Trades
Council adopted special resolutions. They set fines against members who failed
to show up for scheduled union functions. But as an incentive to members, 50
pounds of tobacco awaited the union with the best showing. Detroit continued
to grow in size as abundant capital, skilled labor, and cheap raw materials
made the city the center of auto manufacturing. In 1899, the city's first automobile
factory, the Olds Motor Vehicle Co., opened. By 1905, 29,000 vehicles had been
produced in the city. With the expanding auto industry, Detroit's population
exploded. Between 1910 and 1929 the number of the city's inhabitants tripled
to 1.8 million as immigrant workers and Southern farmers sought work in the
auto plants to provide a better life for their families. Not all shared equally
in the fruits of labor, however. While industrial capitalists, lumber barons
and real estate developers prospered, Detroit's workers continued to toil long
hours at low wages. When the "Roaring Twenties" ended in the stockmarket
crash of 1929, Detroit took a hard hit. The 10-year Depression followed. Since
companies could no longer sell their products to struggling, often hungry families,
they shut down production. A vicious circle of worker layoffs and plant closings
brought more poverty. Laid-off Briggs workers cried, "Buy American? With
what?" The Detroit News reported that people were being found in the city's
streets, victims of poisoning from spoiled food scavenged from garbage cans.
Unemployment in Michigan reached 43 percent in 1932. In Detroit the grim statistics
listed one-third of the population as unemployed and penniless. Evictions littered
the curbs with meager possessions. The ousted had no safety nets, no unemployment
insurance. People relied on family, charities and public breadlines. Hobos marked
an X on the fences of compassionate, generous homeowners who would give a free
meal.
On March 6, 1930, 35,000 jobless workers marched down Woodward
in national protest against unemployment and hunger. In the early 1930s thousands
joined together and walked to the Ford Motor Co.'s employment office in Dearborn.
Henry Ford, whose plants had laid off more than one-third of his employees had
declared that anyone "who wanted a job could find one." The marchers
intended to take old Henry up on his statement. Violence erupted between the
unemployed and police who joined Ford security forces. Shots were fired into
the crowd, killing four protesters. During the following years, a wave of auto
strikes spread to other occupations. The cigar and hotel workers and retail
clerks struck for job security, better wages, safety and dignity. Few strikes
resulted in major victories for the workers, but the growing militancy of Detroit
auto workers taught many employers that cutting wages would only provoke costly
strikes. The breakthrough in union strategy, the 1937 wave of sitdown strikes,
began to turn the tide. Employers had been able to defeat the conventional walkout
strike with replacement workers. Picket lines suffered the hazards of weather,
police and boredom. The sitdown tactic allowed strikers to shut down production
and remain protected from the weather. The arrangement also allowed the workers
to develop a solidarity difficult to foster with a conventional walkout. The
sitdown wave grew rapidly after the historic victory of General Motors workers
in Flint. Their 44-day occupation of the Fisher Body plant forced General Motors
to sign a contract with the union on Feb. 11, 1937.
Nationwide that year there were 177 sitdown strikes that lasted
one day or longer, involving more than 130,000 workers. Locally, more than 100
sitdowns erupted in the factories, stores, and hotels in the winter and early
spring months of 1937. Most of the federal laws protecting workers were passed
during the 1930s. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which strengthened
unions' rights to organize and negotiate with employers, was key legislation.
Unions gained power during the 1940s as America fought World War II. Walter
Reuther's legacy strengthened the rights of the working man. When wages were
frozen during the war, Reuther began negotiating for benefits such as paid vacation
and sick leave. Labor Day rallies in Detroit became the launching pad for Democratic
presidential candidates to announce their campaigns. Candidates Harry Truman,
Adlai Stevenson, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson came to Detroit to jumpstart
their races and woo union support. But big labor's leaders would later lose
much of their clout with the rank and file. Many moved to the suburbs and abandoned
the Detroit parade. Attendance dwindled to barely 6,000 in 1966. Workers spent
the three-day holiday enjoying backyard barbecues, boats and summer cottages:
the fruits of their victories. Neither shamed by fines nor encouraged by prizes,
workers refused to turn out for parades in the 1970s, and the parades were cancelled
until 1981 when a meager 3,000 aging veterans of pioneer sit down strikes and
picket line battles reassembled to give the traditonal show of solidarity one
more try.
In the next year, America's economy became unglued: large numbers
of Michigan automotive workers were laid off in the recession. Police said the
1982 parade drew 170,000 marchers and onlookers, reflecting support for laid
off workers and striking air traffic controllers who had been fired by President
Ronald Reagan the previous year. In 1987 the Labor Day parade drew 100,000.
But the momentum petered out. The struggles of the past faded as workers enjoyed
the benefits of collective bargaining. Today, most Detroiters think of the holiday
as a last summer fling. Many Americans have forgotten the holiday's roots in
unionism. Relaxing at the beach or barbeque, it's easy to forget our grandparents
who marched in the streets in huge parades celebrating the working man's efforts
with a show of solidarity. Without union intervention, overtime pay, vacations
and sick leave policies might not exist, nor workplace safety rules protect
us. The long legacy of labor history surrounds us not only in our city's auto
industry, but in our architecture and art work, and most important in the job
benefits and quality of life we all enjoy from the labor victories.
New York's Labor Day celebrations inspired similar events across
the country. Oregon became the first state to grant legal status to the holiday
in 1887; other states soon followed. In 1894, Congress passed legislation making
Labor Day a national holiday. For many decades, Labor Day was used by workers
not only to celebrate their accomplishments, but also to air their grievances
and discuss strategies for securing better working conditions and salaries.
Nowadays, Labor Day is associated less with union activities and protest marches
and more with leisure. For many, the holiday is a time for family picnics, sporting
events, and summer's last hurrah.
