Labor Day, the federal holiday that recognizes the contributions of workers, will be observed on Monday, Sept. 7.
The first Labor Day observance was organized by the Central Labor Union and took place on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City. Many states and localities followed suit in the proceeding years, and it became a federal holiday in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland signed it into law.
The 1880s were a time of progress for the labor movement, and letter carriers were at the vanguard. In 1884, Congress granted carriers 15 days of leave a year, and in 1888, it awarded them an eight-hour workday. The National Association of Letter Carriers union was formed in Milwaukee the next year.
The Postal Service employs more than 624,000 workers.
The American labor movement “has raised the nation’s standard of living and brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy,” the U.S. Labor Department notes in its online history of the holiday.
“It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pays tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom and leadership — the American worker.”
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