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By MIKE WILSON
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 3, 2000
These days, Labor Day weekend is all about barbecued chicken and the kickoff of football season and sleeping in on Monday, hallelujah. You put away your summer clothes (if you care what Miss Manners thinks) and buy a few last school supplies, then Tuesday morning barges in and you forget why you had a long weekend in the first place.
Here's why: On Sept. 5, 1882, a Tuesday of all days, the Central Labor Union of New York held a picnic and a demonstration to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold," in the words of one early labor activist. It was the Industrial Revolution, and Americans were intent on teaching rude nature some manners.
It's not clear whether the idea for Labor Day came from Peter McGuire of the carpenters and joiners' union or Matthew Maguire, a machinist. This much we know: In 1894, Congress established the first Monday in September as a national holiday. We can't prove the barbecue sauce lobby had anything to do with it, but we wouldn't be surprised.
Today we honor some Tampa Bay area workers who do some delving and carving of their own. We hope that today their hands are resting. Please pass the slaw.