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ASPPA Connect Returns Sept. 8

ASPPA Connect will not be published on Labor Day; we will resume publication on Wednesday, Sept. 8. To note the holiday, here are some facts concerning it. 

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. 

So who first proposed a Labor Day holiday? It’s not entirely clear, but there are two solid claims.

Some records show that in 1882, Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, suggested setting aside a day for a “general holiday for the laboring classes” to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”

But many believe that machinist Matthew Maguire is the founder of Labor Day. Recent research seems to support the contention that Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, NJ, proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.

The New Jersey Historical Society says that after President Grover Cleveland signed the law creating a national Labor Day in 1894, the Paterson Morning Call published an opinion piece stating that “the souvenir pen should go to Alderman Matthew Maguire of this city, who is the undisputed author of Labor Day as a holiday.”