09/07/2026
Nobody is entirely sure who invented Labor Day, and the two leading candidates had nearly the same name.
The Department of Labor lays out both cases without picking a winner. Peter J. McGuire, a carpenter and co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, is the traditional answer. But the Department notes that recent research seems to support Matthew Maguire, a machinist from Paterson, New Jersey. McGuire and Maguire. A holiday celebrated for more than 140 years, and the credit is still open.
What is settled: the first Labor Day was Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City. By the time Congress made it federal on June 28, 1894, thirty one states had already made it a holiday on their own. The country adopted this one from the bottom up.
Today most people get the day. Not everyone does. Our members are working it, along with the nurses, the line crews, the dispatchers, and everyone else whose job does not observe a Monday in September.