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Tuesday, April 26, 2016

World Labour Day(May Day)-Date of World Labour Day-About World Labour Day


Date World Labour Day

 


World Labour Day is Coming on 1st May 2016 and every year.

About World Labour Day 

 


May Day also known as Labour Day or International Workers' Day celebrated every year on 1st May. This day is a national holiday in more than 80 countries and also celebrated unofficially in many other countries. It is  many countries including India, May Day is also celebrated as Labour Daeld on 1st May every year. The day originates with the US labour movement in the late 19th century. The history of the movement dates back to May 1, 1886.

On this day several labour unions across the US went on strike, demanding a standard workday of eight hours. On May 4th there was bloodshed in Chicago's Haymarket Square – A bomb thrown by a revolutionist led to the deaths of a dozen people (including several police officers) and the injury of over 100 people.

The protests did not get an immediate outcome, but they proved effective subsequently, as eight-hour work days became the norm in many countries across the globe. This day was hence chosen as a day for demonstrations, parades, and speeches. It is a major state holiday in US, Russia and other communist countries. In India, May Day has also been declared a public holiday.

Founder of Labor Day

 


More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed
the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

 

A Nationwide Holiday

 


The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem.

This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worke.

The First Labor Day

 


The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.


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