Most nations celebrate workers on May 1, so why is American Labor Day the first Monday in September?

More mysterious is that May Day’s bloody roots are in the U.S. In 1889, May Day was declared “International Workers’ Day” by the International Socialist Conference to honor American labor leaders hanged for conspiracy for the deaths in the 1886 Chicago Haymarket Riots/ Massacre during a rally for a 10-hour workday,

The American elite — panicked about American unions — pushed to disassociate Americans workers from international labor solidarity.

Pro-business President Grover Cleveland declared the first Monday in September as a federal Labor Day holiday in 1894. And, in 1950 Congress designated May 1 as “Law Day” to lift up the “rule of law” and to disassociate May Day with labor movements.

Union gains and setbacks in 2024

The Starbucks on Santa Cruz’s Mission Street was the first to unionize in California.

After a long strike between writers and actors in 2023, in 2024 the musicians settled with Hollywood studios without having to strike. Also, the Transport Workers Union and Southwest Airlines, Daimler Truck and United Auto Workers, and Anheuser-Busch and the Teamsters settled without a strike.

In bad/good news, unfortunately, it took a strike to get a good contract between UNITE HERE and 34 Southern California hotels. Unions broke the Southern barrier when Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted in the United Auto Workers. The Communications Workers of America celebrated a breakthrough in tech by organizing Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard. The Service Employees International Union’s organizing Dartmouth men’s basketball players — redefining the meaning of work so that raising money for a rich college is “work.”

But there are some dark clouds. So-called progressive companies such as REI and Trader Joe’s are actively involved in blocking their workers’ rights to organize and get away with it in so-called progressive towns like Santa Cruz.

Communities need unions as well as unions

Unions are part of a social movement that bargains contracts and higher “social” wages. Unions use political and community organizing for better public schools, higher Medicare, Social Security, and unemployment benefits, universal health care, civil rights, and housing infrastructure. The Labor Movement are the folks that brought you the weekend.

When citizens need a voice, they turn to unions.

Unions articulated the high social costs when Amazon warehouses move to a town. Without a labor agreement and without Amazon’s agreement to mitigate traffic disruption and reduce noise and pollution the corporation could end up bringing low-wage jobs to a community but also worse living standards. The local labor movement pressed city leaders to negotiate with Amazon.

In response to Amazon’s pressure, the Secretary Treasurer of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Francisco Rodriguez said, “So we want jobs just like every city, but we want jobs that can afford a mortgage. We want jobs that are going to allow the residents to have proper health care and a secure retirement.”

Labor Day is filled with BBQs and mattress sales. But Rodriguez warns us that “Labor Day is not like an Independence Day — ‘hey, a new nation is born, hooray.’ Instead, Labor Day reminds us that lifting up communities and workers is an ongoing struggle.”

Teresa Ghilarducci is a nationally recognized labor economist, Professor of Economics at The New School for Social Research and a Santa Cruz resident.