It’s Labor Day, time to celebrate workers and labor unions. For this Labor Day RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay says it’s a tough time for workers and organized labor.
In Rhode Island, Labor Day wasn’t always just another day off. It wasn’t always just an excuse for a last summer day at the beach. Or a backyard cookout.
A century ago, Labor Day was a time of worker activism. In 1893, after years of agitation by workers and union leaders, the Rhode Island General Assembly established the first Monday in September as a legal, but not a paid, holiday.