Labour Day in History

editorawais

There is some doubt and confusion as to when or by whom Labor Day was started. Here are some points of importance to how Labor Day Started.

* April 15, 1872 - Toronto Trades Assembly (TTA) (possibly the original labour body in Canada) organized the first North American "workingman's demonstration". Some 10,000 Torontonians turned out to watch a parade and to listen to speeches calling for abolition of the law which decreed that "trade unions were criminal conspiracies in restraint of trade".

* September 3, 1872 - Members of seven unions in Ottawa Canada organized a parade that stretched for more than a mile long. The parade stopped at the home of Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald. They brought him into a carriage and marched to the Ottawa City Hall by torch light. The Prime Minister was aware of the discontent of workers with the laws which made unions illegal so he made this declaration that his party would "Sweep away all such barbarous laws from the statute books". These laws were repealed by Parliament later that year and the tradition of holding parades and demonstrations was continued on into the early 1880's.

* July 22, 1882 - The Toronto Trades and Labour Council (the successor to the TTA) organized the annual demonstration and parade. Peter J. McGuire of New York was invited to attend and speak at this occasion.

* 1882 - Matthew Maguire, later secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J. proposed a Holiday for Labor while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.

* 1882 - Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor suggested a day to honor workers.

* September 5, 1882 - The Central Labor Union held its first Labor Day holiday in New York City. A second Labor Day was again held a year later on September 5, 1883.

* 1884 - The first Monday in September was selected as the holiday and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to also celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date.

* February 21, 1887 - Oregon passed the first bill to become law making Labor Day an official holiday.

* June 28, 1894 - The U.S.A. Congress passed an act making the first Monday of September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories including all Federal workers in all states. The individual States still had to enact their own legislation which 31 States had done already by this time.

* July 23, 1894 - The Canadian Government enacted legislation making Labour Day, the first Monday of September of each year into a national holiday.

ujala · **Posted:** May 01, 2009 **Post subject:**

Informative article