Labor Day

a little while we figured out that wasn't gonna work. Well, I see you're wearing white, m hm. And that's because it's not yet Labor Day, and then it's acceptable. Still is that still a thing? Oh? Was it ever? I think so? Yeah. I think that, um, gangs of angry people would beat you senseless if they saw you wearing white after Labor Day. Gangs of angry boaters and country clubs. Yeah, maybe clutching their pearls. We're talking Labor Day, Yeah, we

are talking Labor Day. And a lot of people kind of look at Labor Day and say that's a weird name for a day off to go have a picnic before we have to go back to school or something. Sure, and that is a pretty appropriate thought if you think about it, because it really doesn't have anything to do with labor. Um. It's a day off, which is something, but it's not a day off for everybody. It just seems insensible until you start to know the origins of Labor Day and you say, oh, it came out of

the labor unions, hence the name labor Day. Let's get back to that. Yeah, exactly. Uh, as far as national holidays in the US and Canada, it's been around since about eighteen, well since exactly eight And it was, like you said, labor unions. They don't know exactly who started this tradition, but I think scholars generally say one of

two people, both involved in labor unions probably did so. Yeah, one Waster McGuire and the other one was Matthew McGuire, two different spellings, but um they I saw somewhere that Matthew McGuire was much more radical and that um Peter McGuire was much more um centrist. He was the chill one. So he was the one that gets He got the official credit over time, but it may have actually really

been Matthew McGuire. He was just overlooked because he was like, let's have let's have some labor party rallies and maybe we'll throw some bombs or something. Possibly, so Peter McGuire with a C. He was a general secretary of the And I love this, the Brotherhood of Carpenters and joiners. And I guess they mean joiner is as a woodworking joiner. No, I think they mean like people who like to join clubs. Different. No, sure, it's gotta be right because it's follows carpenters. But I mean, yeah,

I guess that's what that means. Nothing like a dovetailed joint, right, that's what it is that really gets my blood flowing. But shouldn't it be jointers? I don't know. I bet you someone will have some good information on this, like a joiner was a former name for carpenter or something, right, but well, so McGuire. Peter McGuire's claimed to fame. Other claim to fame was um that he co founded the a f L. What, Yeah, the American Federation of Labor.

I thought you met the American Football League. No, who was that? Well? I don't know, Okay, So the the whoever came up with the idea it's murky, but we actually do know. The first Labor Day that was September five, eight two, and it took place in New York and

it was like a real deal Labor Day thing. Yeah, the parade, Yeah, and the whole the whole reason behind the First Labor Day Parade was like, at the time, if you worked, you worked in a factory most likely, and you worked anywhere between twelve and tend to twelve to fourteen hour days, seven days a week. And so these labor unions were starting to organize, but they were you know, they were pretty good at organizing people in their trade, but they weren't coming together to to really

join their strengths. And so whoever's idea this was to have this first Labor Day parade. The basis of it was get all these different people from different unions together and so they can see that they have all this stuff in common, and then maybe we can really become, like, um, a strong political force and we can agitate for like a five day work week and eight hour work days. And they were successful, but it came out of this

first this first parade that they had. Yeah, they were like, hey, we get all Thanksgiving, Christmas in the fourth of July, how about one extra day off? Yeah, and and for this first labor day and for other ones too, they were like, well, no, you can't have the day off. So it was a general strike, is how they took the day off. Yeah. So enter President Cleveland, Mr Grover Cleveland. And uh is an interesting background because he was not

a union supporter. But everyone thinks when he signed the law saying the first Monday in September shall be Labor Day nationwide, while I grew up mustache or shaved the beard, especially as you can tell pretty good Chuck. But most people think that even though he wasn't a union supporter, he was trying to, uh, sort of put himself in a better light because of some political damage earlier that year. He sent federal troops in to put down a strike.

And this was I mean, I know we covered some of this in the Union's Long Unions episode, but a lot of times these strikes became you know, bloody battles and riots, and uh, a strike by the American Railway Union at the Pullman Company in Chicago did just that and thirty four workers died. So they think Cleveland was like all right, Uh, you're gonna have a day off.

I saw both things. I saw that Cleveland saw this as politically healing, you know, it was like like a boney was tossing to the to the unions and a labor in general. I also saw that that Congress had a bill um going in circulation years before this happened, and that Cleveland just happened to be the president who was sitting at the time, and so he was the one who signed it. And really it wasn't any any political tool at all. So I saw both but either

way it did. It did come on the heels of that for sure, and that was a that was a big deal, that strike. I was looking into it, Chuck, and there's like, um, like the whole thing started because some some workers from the Pullman Company. Pullman made railroad cars at the time, like the popular ones like the good on the Pullman yard here in Atlanta, right right.

So they went to to the head of the company, I think either George or Charles Pullman, and said, hey, we we want to we want to work fewer hours. We think we're working too much for too little pay. He said, oh, that's great, I'll take it into consideration and like true Montgomery burns fashion. He fired the people for even asking and so that started this whole, this whole strike that ended up, Like you said, it was bloody.

There are riots. They were overturning railroad cars. Overturning railroad cars. Do you know how hard that would be? I imagine that was rope involved, I would hope. So, yeah, in the Incredible Hulk, should we take a little quick break. Yeah, I'm a little worked up. All right, We're gonna take a quickie everybody, and we will come back and finish up about Labor Day right after this, all right? So, oh,

what's Labor Day like around the world, Josh? It has other names in different parts of the world's at right, Yeah, and it takes place at different times, like May Day. May one is known internationally, is like the the day of workers, basically what Labor Day was originally to America. Um May Day is to the rest of the world, especially Europe and China and some other places. And it's been definitely co opted as a kind of a communist day too. Interesting, Yeah, which is another reason why we

don't really tend to celebrate May Day. We celebrate Labor Day in a totally different part of the year. Nothing

to do with communism. Yeah, and I actually looked up the origins of this whole white after Labor Day and are old buddies at Mental Floss and new buddies here at work will in mangsh I don't know if they wrote this one, but apparently that came in the eighteen eighties or so post Civil War, when uh, new money started happening, and apparently the old money people were like, geez, there's more rich people now than ever, and we can't

distinguish between the rich folks. So I'm on an old blue blood and this guy just made his money and I don't know whatever they were making back then that could make you rich. Um chewing gum, radio knobs, radio knobs. He's got new money. So they felt the need the old blue bloods too, uh design a bunch of silly like fashion rules and society rules, Uh that I don't

know if only they would know about it. Yeah, just doing trapped people maybe, but as a way to distinguish, you know, old money and true rich people from these vulgar new rich people. And apparently not wearing white outside of summer was just one of those rules that was so those were the very people who would beat you senseless if they caught you wearing white. That was the other part of it too, not just feeling foolish, but feeling vulnerable tremendous paint. But they do confirm that these

days it's not a big deal. I think it's just kind of become more of a joke now when someone says you don't wear white after Labor Day, I see you just laugh and laugh at the joke. But as far as unions go, the US now obviously is way down as far as union membership in the nineteen fifties, and this is pretty remarkable if you ask me about of the workforce in America belong to a union. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, they've got things done back then too.

What are he's saying? I think, you know, uh, and now I believe and I'm not sure when this was written, but it's probably roughly the same. But about four I saw even lower, which I mean would definitely go on to explain why labor days really lost its meaning to you know. Well, now I think people know it as just that sort of last blast um. Even though kids start school way early now, it used to be sort of around that time when you would head back to

school and stuff. Yeah, I was thinking about that. It made me nostalgic for when I was in school, like seeing like, oh yeah, Labor Day right after that you would go back to school. And now it's like not been in school for a full month now. Yeah, But I mean I remember having like all of June, July, and August off for sure. I know, now these kids are back in school and August it's weird chumps. But they do get a very quick break with Labor Day at least, no, I know, they definitely have some pretty

killer breaks that we didn't have. For sure. They get all the brakes. Well that's it, huh, that's that's one in the can. If you happen to be listening to this on Labor Day, pay yourself on the back because you just created an s Y s K trifecta. There. Oh that's nice, chuck, and put on something white just to stick it in the eye of those blue bloods. If you want to get in touch with us, you can go to our website stuff you should know dot com. It's got all of our social media links. You can

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