Labor Day is a federal and state holiday in New York.
Closed for Labor Day:
- government offices, including Southold Town Hall
- courts
- the U.S. post office (no mail delivery)
- schools
- banks
- public libraries
- N.Y. Stock Exchange
The LIRR is operating on a Sunday/holiday schedule.
The S92 Suffolk Transit buses are running today. Other SCT bus lines are not.
What’s this holiday all about?
While Labor Day, marked each year on the first Monday in September, signifies the “end of summer” and the beginning of the back-to-school season, it’s officially a day set aside to honor American workers and their achievements.
The holiday grew out of the early days of the American labor movement at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the the late 19th century. It was a time when the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks, when young children worked in factories, mills and mines, when people often worked in very unsafe working conditions. Labor unions were becoming more vocal and more powerful. They began organizing strikes and protest rallies, demanding better working conditions and the right to collectively negotiate wages and hours.
Labor Day was first celebrated on on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882 in New York City, with a parade and a massive picnic organized by the Central Labor Union. New York, New Jersey and Colorado were among the first states to declare a Labor Day holiday.
Labor Day did not become a federal holiday until 1894, following the Pullman strike and nationwide railway boycott in May of that year, which crippled railroad traffic. When the federal government sent troops to Chicago to break the strike, it touched off riots that resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen workers.
Against this backdrop of massive unrest, Congress, hoping to improve relations with American workers and unions, passed legislation making Labor Day a federal legal holiday. At that point 23 states had already done the same.
Today, the Labor Day holiday is one of the most important days of the year for retailers, second only to “Black Friday.”
