In Wisconsin, Labor Day became an official state holiday in 1893. Labor Day became a national holiday in 1894. President Grover Cleveland, after breaking the American Railway Union with considerable violence and loss of life, signed a bill making the first Monday in September a national holiday for American workers. It was a blatant attempt to win back public support after using Federal Troops to break the Pullman Strike earlier that summer.
HERE’S WHAT WE PLAYED
Workin’
Working Man Blues Merle Haggard
Heaven Help the Working Girl Norma Jean
Lord Have Mercy on the Working Man Travis Tritt
Forty Hour Week (For a Livin’) Alabama
9 to 5 Dolly Parton
Coal Minin’
Sixteen Tons Tennessee Ernie Ford
Coal Miner’s Daughter Loretta Lynn
Nine Pound Hammer Flatt & Scruggs
Dark As A Dungeon Merle Travis
Harlan County Jim Ford
Gettin’ Back at Your Boss
A Working Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today Merle Haggard
Sawmill Mel Tillis
They’ll Never Keep Us Down Hazel Dickens
Oney Johnny Cash
Take This Job and Shove It Johnny Paycheck
Lest We Forget
Solidarity Forever Pete Seeger
Wisconsin’s most historic and bloody labor incident occurred on May 5, 1886 on the shores of Lake Michigan in the Bay View area of Milwaukee. Some 1,500 workers marched toward the Bay View Rolling Mills (then the area’s biggest manufacturer) urging the workers there to strike, demanding an eight-hour work day. The local militia, called to the scene by Governor Jeremiah Rusk, fired on the crowd, killing seven people and ending the march. The event became known as the Bay View Massacre.
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