Over the next 12 years, labor activists across the country spoke, assembled and petitioned for recognition of Labor Day — and many states listened. Oregon established a state holiday in 1887, and by 1894, nearly 30 states recognized Labor Day.
In June 1894, Chicago workers at a railroad car manufacturer went on strike after a pay cut. The American Railroad Union joined the protest with a boycott, which delayed U.S. mail deliveries. Protests by workers and their supporters became violent. The federal government got a court order under interstate commerce laws to end what became known as the Pullman strike and sent troops to enforce the order.
The violence of the protests and the government’s unprecedented action to stop the strike were both unpopular with the public.
Within days, a bill designating Labor Day as a legal federal holiday, which had been stalled in Congress for nearly a year, passed and was signed into law by President Grover Cleveland.
When the dispute around the court order later reached the Supreme Court, the court upheld the government’s power to obtain the order without applying the kind of First Amendment protections for labor speech and peaceful protest that courts would develop decades later.
How does the First Amendment play a role in Labor Day today?
The First Amendment protects labor organizers’ rights to speak, gather and encourage workers to join unions or support labor causes.
People also have a right to petition the government about policies that affect workers.
Today, whether it’s marching in a parade or speaking out about working conditions — or wearing white before or after Labor Day — the First Amendment protects many of the ways you might mark the holiday.
Karen Hansen is a staff writer at Freedom Forum. She can be reached at [email protected].
This article was compiled with contributions from Freedom Forum experts, including Vice President and First Amendment Expert Kevin Goldberg and First Amendment Specialist Alex Morey.