The ClaimLinx office will be closed on Monday, September 4 to celebrate Labor Day with friends and family. All inquiries via phone or email with be returned as soon as possible when the office reopens with regular business hours on Tuesday.
We hope all our clients and members are able to enjoy the holiday safely with loved ones. Our staff will be attending cookouts, traveling to beaches and trying to enjoy the last gasps of Summer. How will you be spending your Labor Day weekend? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram by tagging @ClaimLinx.
Ever wonder where the Labor Day holiday comes from? The first Labor Day took place in New York City on September 5, 1882 when the Central Labor Union organized a march from City Hall to a picnic in an uptown park. Workers of all kinds, including cigarmakers, dressmakers, printers, shoemakers, bricklayers and other factory workers, carried signs advocating an eight-hour work day and higher wages.
At the time, men, women and children were known to work 12-hour work days up to seven days per week. It’s reported as many as 10,000 people came together to march that day.
The first Labor Day parade was a risk to the workers, because their one-day strike could have turned into a dismissal. As the labor movement grew across the country, more industrial centers followed New York City’s lead in celebrating the first Monday of September as a “workingmen’s holiday.” Parades across cities were made up of workers and labor unions holding signs about more rights and more pay to exhibit the strength of their organizations.
Amid a series of strikes and protests, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law on June 28, 1894 declaring Labor Day a national holiday. Recognizing the day nationally was seen as a way of maintaining support from labor organizations when they were becoming increasingly powerful.
Now, most people celebrate Labor Day with backyard barbecues or last gasps of summer celebration rather than parades with signs about labor rights. But maybe this year, with this little bit of history in hand, we can all take a minute to remember the organizations that gave workers this often much-needed day to unwind with friends and family.