It’s easy to go to the park, have a bountiful lunch, play on the fields, and not think of the people who made this day important. The first Labor Day was September 5, 1882, in NYC. And in 1884, congress declared the first Monday in September to be an official holiday. Only a few reasons for this day below.
Lunch atop a Skyscraper is a black-and-white photograph taken on September 20, 1932, of eleven ironworkers sitting on a steel beam of the RCA Building, 850 feet (260 meters) above the ground during the construction of Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, New York City. It was a staged photograph arranged as a publicity stunt, part of a campaign promoting the skyscraper.
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machinists iron
steel work teeters on high beams
miners give their lungs
ranchers hope for good weather
train inspectors secure rails
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sweatshop children saved
new safety rules for workers
rights for new mothers
new forty hour work weeks
paid leave for worker’s illness
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Haibun Monday 9-1-25: Labor
The Bag Lady 
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