Many people associate May 1st with the day we get to greet the May flowers as we bid farewell to the blistering Jack Frost winds, chilling temperatures, and their garnish of snowflakes that have spent the past few months blanketing everything on the site. unprejudiced. However, this day is also a historical milestone, one that helped cultivate the rights of today’s workers. May 1st marks the day that previous generations printed as the symbol to celebrate the social effort that helped forge a path to labor rights and justice, all of which came at great human cost.
Imagine waking up and having to go to work in conditions that essentially exploited employees, with no standardized minimum wage protection or definition of what a work day meant in terms of time spent at work. Imagine a time when employers wouldn’t even imagine having to consider providing medical, vision and/or dental care to their employees; a time when the workforce was seen as a commodity rather than a valuable human element in the success of a company or business. May Day is a historic labor movement that helped build a foundation for the rights many employees enjoy today, the same rights many of us take for granted.
On May 1, 1886, while many welcomed the new spring, many others took to the streets to parade and demonstrate for the rights of workers. On this day, according to Time magazine, there were approximately 200,000 American workers who orchestrated a nationwide strike in an effort to demand an eight-hour work day. Chicago, among other major cities, was one of the epicenters of these strikes and protests in an effort to show the frustrations with the lack of labor rights at the time. However, like many highly charged movements, the Chicago protest turned highly volatile. In 1938, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, there was a gathering of approximately 3,000 people that focused on protesting for an 8-hour work day. When the last speaker finished his speech, there were 180 policemen who marched to break up the event. The police ordered everyone to disperse and, to everyone’s surprise, a bomb exploded inside the ranks of the uniformed officers, injuring 67 and killing 7. In an unplanned response, the police opened fire on the crowd, killing several men. and injuring 200. This unfortunate event will be part of history forever and is known as the Haymarket Tragedy. Three years later, in 1889, this event was commemorated as the International Labor Day.
May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, is another example of how society took it upon itself to take action in an effort to highlight injustices within the workplace. The activists who participated in the various protests helped create a springboard for future movements that paved the way for the rights we have today.
May Day comes and goes every year and few know the underlying story behind this historic event that ultimately impacted working generations to come. So for this year and all the years to come, we must reflect on May Day and its historical significance. Above all, we must all hold in high esteem and appreciation all those involved in the movement that led to our modern workplace for the determined efforts they have made to help guide society toward a better, safer and more equitable workplace.
