It’s a day known by many names: May Day, International Workers’ Day, or even Labour Day in some countries. It falls on May 1 every year—yet in the United States, where the movement was born, most people are largely unaware of its roots or importance.
Though some may associate May Day with spring and maypole dances—a tradition that goes back to Ancient Greece and Rome— its modern-day significance is grounded in the labor movement and the belief that working people deserve power and dignity.
In the late 1800s, industrialization reshaped American life—especially for workers. Migrants from around the world searched for opportunity but instead faced grueling conditions: 10-to-16-hour workdays, six-day workweeks in unsafe conditions and environments. The injuries and fatalities that were commonplace during that time inspired classic works such as Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Jack London’s The Iron Heel and sparked the birth of the American labor movement.
Out of this shift came two competing forces: Wealthy reformers who wanted to resurrect May Day’s ancient origins to instill “traditional American” values into migrants, and laborers who began organizing into unions to fight for safer workplaces, fair hours, and stronger protections. These unions gave workers the power to elect politicians with their interest in mind and allowed them to gain bargaining power, which was needed to win one of the biggest worker demands of the time — the eight-hour workday.
In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions—which later became the American Federation of Labor—called for a national strike on May 1, 1886. That day, more than 30,000 workers walked off their jobs, marching peacefully in the streets to draw public attention and convince others to join the fight.
Two days later, violence broke out. Police opened fire on a group of striking workers at a McCormick Harvesting Machine Company plant, killing at least two people. The next evening, laborers rallied at Haymarket Square to protest police brutality. What began as a small, peaceful rally turned deadly when police stormed the crowd and a bomb was thrown, sparking a chaotic shootout that killed at least seven police officers and four workers
To this day, no one knows who threw the bomb. Many believe the explosion was a set up intended to discredit the labor movement. But, nonetheless, it led to the arrest and conviction of eight men — four of whom weren’t even present when the incident occurred. Despite lack of solid evidence connecting them to the bombing four men were executed, two got life sentences, another got 15 years, and one — a 21-year-old — died by suicide the day before he was set to be executed.
Among those killed was August Spies, who left behind some powerful last words:
“There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.”
The tragedy sparked an international outrage with workers holding rallies in solidarity across the globe. In 1889, the International Social Conference declared May Day a labor holiday and in the years after, it became known as what many nations now call International Workers’ Day. But in the U.S., political leaders sought to erase May Day’s labor movement origins in favor of a “less radical” Labor Day in September.
Despite that, the labor movement pressed on in the U.S. and, 50 years later, the eight-hour workday was enshrined into law with the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Today, May Day remains a little-known chapter in American history—but its lessons are more relevant today than ever. Educators, education staff professionals, nurses, postal workers, transit employees, and more are still rising up—despite political efforts aimed at weaking the rights of workers to organize, collectively bargain, and advocate for their futures. Educators are feeling the pressure of being used as political talking points, budget cuts, legislative overreach, low pay and increasing workloads. Yet the lessons we take from May Day remind us that when we fight together, we can win—no matter how long the road before us may be.
The legacy of May Day lives on in every union educator who refuses to stay silent. The hard-won union victories that paved the way for us to enjoy something as basic as a two-day weekend and an eight-hour workday cannot and must not be forgotten. Even as lawmakers push to roll back child labor protections and weaken public education, we must stand in the gap and protect every child’s right to a safe, world-class public education.
At the heart of our work as educators and unionists is a simple truth: we do this for our students and for the future we all deserve. There’s still much to fight for—and it begins by remembering how far we’ve come.
The Florida Education Association is the state’s largest association of professional employees, with more than 120,000 members. We are affiliated nationally with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA) and the national AFL-CIO.
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