From strikes to new union contracts, Labor Day's organizing roots are especially strong this year

Labor Day comes with big sales and barbecues, but the activist roots of the holiday are especially visible this year as unions challenge how workers are treated.

NEW YORK — Labor Day comes with big sales and barbecues, but the activist roots of the holiday are especially visible this year as unions challenge how workers are treated — from Hollywood to the auto production lines of Detroit.

The first U.S. Labor Day celebration took place in New York City on Sept. 5, 1882. Some 10,000 workers marched in a parade organized by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor. “The federal government intervened to break the strike in a very violent way — that left more than a dozen workers dead,” Vachon says. Cleveland soon made Labor Day a national holiday in an attempt “to repair the trust of the workers.”

New York and Chicago, for example, hold parades for thousands of workers and their unions. Such festivities aren't practiced as much in regions where unionization has historically been eroded, Vachon said, or didn't take a strong hold in the first place.

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