Honoring the working man (and woman)
<p>Brenda Herbst, dressed as Cluck the Pizza Hut chicken, takes a break from waving a promotional sign at passing cars on the corner of Idaho and Main streets.</p>
<p>Angela Daedario uses a pressure washer to clear debris from cracks in the curb and street Wednesday morning.</p>
<p>Tyler Nukwas fixes a flat tire on Friday morning. Nukwas has been working at Tire Rama for two and a half years.</p>
<p>Jessy Foultner fills a cup of salsa for an order of nachos at the Wrap and Roll Cafe in Kalispell on Friday afternoon.</p>
While millions of Americans look forward to resting from their labors on the first Monday of September, the holiday’s origins are somewhat mysterious. Historians debate who first proposed the holiday.
Some say Peter McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and cofounder of the American Federation of Labor was first to suggest a day to recognized people “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”
But others say Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary of the Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.
Whoever founded it, Labor Day was first celebrated Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City. In 1884, the holiday moved to the first Monday in September, and the Central Labor Union encouraged similar organizations to celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” on that day.
Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894.
— Information from the U.S. Department of Labor