Initially, it was an annual day of protest and strike to achieve a reduction in working hours, and workers sometimes paid a high price for this. Today, the “Holiday” of May 1st is celebrated in many countries around the world and is mostly a public holiday, with no work and paid.
And we owe it to the American workers of Chicago. In May 1886, a protest movement was launched there by American unions to demand an eight-hour working day from employers. It was a Saturday, May 1st. Not a coincidence: many American companies started their fiscal year on that day, and it was also when contracts ended.
Three years later, on June 20, 1889, in their memory, the Congress of the Second Socialist International, held in Paris for the centenary of the French Revolution, decided to make May 1st a day of struggle worldwide. The goal: to reduce the workday to eight hours, equaling 48 hours per week.
For many years, May 1st was thus a significant day of protest, and the word “holiday” was not yet used, for a very simple reason: those who wanted to strike risked losing their jobs, as at the time, it was still possible to dismiss someone for that reason.
In France, the great wave of strikes during the Popular Front owes its start to the dismissal of workers on May 2nd and 3rd, 1936, because they had gone on strike on May 1st. These events would leave a lasting impact on the French imagination. From them came the 40-hour workweek, the first weeks of paid vacation, and the recognition of union rights.
It was the Vichy government, during the German occupation, hoping to win over the workers, that instituted it as the “Labor Day,” which became a public holiday six years later.
Today, Labor Day is commemorated by a public holiday in most European countries, with notable exceptions such as Switzerland and the Netherlands.
