Why Labor Day is celebrated today

May 1, 2019

It's a tribute to the so-called Chicago martyrs.

Today we celebrate International Workers' Day as a tribute to the so-called Chicago martyrs. At the end of the 19th century, the motto was: "Eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and eight hours of work". But none of this has happened.

At that time, American employees had to work 12, 16 and even 18 hours a day. The only limitation in some States was the prohibition on a person working 18 consecutive hours without justification. The fine for forcing the employee to date was $ 25.

The International Labor Day commemorates May 1, 1886, a date that marks a before and after in the history of the organized labor movement. That day, a strike began to protest the eight-hour day that lasted until the 4th of this month, when the Haymarket uprising took place, which ended in the morning. execution of a group of anarchist syndicalists, later baptized under the name of Chicago martyrs.

Samuel Felden, Oscar Neebe and Michael Scwab were sentenced to long prison terms. George Engel, August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolf Fischer and Louis Lingg, who committed suicide at the last moment in his cell, were badigned to the gallows.

The date chosen was not that of his death, but on May 1, when, in 1886, with hundreds of thousands of American workers, they stopped the country to claim 8 hours of work.

The demands of the workers were not new. By the end of the eighteenth century, workers had protested against the extremely difficult working conditions created by the industrial revolution in Britain.