Worker’s day is celebrated internationally. Some call it Labour Day, some Worker’s Day, some May Day. The variety of names doesn’t change the conditions that guide the reason for the holiday. Quite an awful lot happened before this holiday came forth.
According to history, the working class groups in Canada and United States held protests to campaign for shorter working hours on May 1, 1886. They wanted eight hours (so we would have had 9a.m to 3 p.m jobs) – this makes me wonder how long they worked for.
Days after the protests, the Chicago police killed several protesters. Another rally was held to protest against the killings, but became a bomb killing spree. There was a lot of unrest during this period: wrong arrests, executions, life sentences. After all of the brouhaha, the workers were not granted their wish, making it a very sad story indeed.
In 1889, the International Worker’s congress at Paris declared an eight hour holiday to commemorate the fight for better working conditions and wages. This eight hour holiday later became a full day holiday.
Imagine you had to go back to work in eight hours though…. shivers LOL.