Labor Day 2014: Holiday is Next Monday; First One on September

Labor Day 2014: Holiday is Next Monday; First One on September
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2014, file photo, pedestrians walk in front of the Metropolitan Opera house at New York's Lincoln Center. New York's Metropolitan Opera has reached tentative labor deals with two of its largest unions while negotiations continue with 10 more unions in hopes of averting a lockout, the federal Mediation and Conciliation Service announced early Monday, Aug. 18, 2014. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
Jack Phillips
8/25/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

 Labor Day is next week on Monday.

A number of people will get the day off, as it’s a federal holiday.

And since it’s a federal holiday, banks, schools, and a number of businesses won’t be open.

The vast majority of banks, including big ones like Wells Fargo, Chase, Citibank, and Bank of America, will be closed.

Public transportation will also likely run on holiday or weekend schedule.

The US Stock Exchange and NASDAQ will also not trade on the day.

However, a number of chain stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Kroger, and others will be open. Many will have sales to accompany Labor Day.

In 1894, Congress passed an ordinance to make Labor Day an official holiday--starting on the first Monday of each September.

“Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From these, a movement developed to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887,” the US Department of Labor says.

It adds: “During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.”

Record show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters, was the founder of the day. But some historians have said that others started the day before that.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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