Celebrate Labor
On March 25, 1911, as the Triangle Shirtwaist Company burned, a young social worker who was in Washington Square was looking on in horror as the seamstresses jumped to their deaths. That young social worker was Frances Perkins. It was because of this event that she resigned her position as head of the New York Consumers League to become the executive secretary for the Committee on Safety of the City of New York.
When you walk into the Department of Labor’s building in Washington DC, you are greeted by a statue of Frances Perkins. In fact, the building is named for her. Frances Perkins was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. In this role, she had an unenviable challenge: she had to be as capable, as fearless, as tactful, as politically astute as the other Washington politicians, in order to make it possible for other women to be accepted into the halls of power after her.
While famous simply by being the first woman cabinet member, her legacy stems from her accomplishments. She was largely responsible for the U.S. adoption of social security, unemployment insurance, federal laws regulating child labor, and adoption of the federal minimum wage.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign a proclamation designating Perkins’s family home in Newcastle, Maine, as part of the National Park System, aiming to recognize the legacy of a trailblazing woman. Currently, only 12 national park sites are devoted to historic women.
This is a win for everyone as we approach the end of summer vacation and celebrate Labor Day next Monday—a tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
Labor Day emerged from the ranks of organized labor at a time when they wanted to demonstrate the strength of their burgeoning movement and inspire improvements in their working conditions.
The holiday was first celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City when some 10,000 workers assembled and marched from City Hall, past reviewing stands in Union Square, and then uptown to 42nd Street. The workers and their families gathered for a picnic, concert and speeches. It was organized by the Central Labor Union, an umbrella group made up of representatives from many local unions.
By 1884 similar organizations in other cities followed the example of New York and celebrated 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. By 1894, 237 states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28, 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.
As you celebrate the end of summer vacation and return to school, don’t forget to honor the workers who came before us and the woman who championed worker’s rights.