For many of us, Labor Day means the unofficial end of summer, one last cookout, maybe a parade, and the realization that football season is finally back.

But Labor Day is about something much bigger for us as a nation, Toledo as a city and my family especially. 

The holiday was created to recognize the “social and economic achievements of American workers” and the contributions working people have made to the strength and prosperity of our country. The first Labor Day celebration took place in New York City in 1882, and in 1894 Congress made the first Monday in September a national holiday.

And here in Toledo, Ohio, we have a special reason to remember the history behind the holiday and a larger than most celebration of it. Why?

Toledo Helped Write American Labor History

In the spring of 1934, Toledo became the site of one of the most important labor conflicts of the Great Depression: the Electric Auto-Lite Strike.

What began as a dispute involving workers at the Electric Auto-Lite Company grew into a major confrontation involving thousands of workers, supporters, law enforcement, and eventually the Ohio National Guard. The conflict became one of several pivotal strikes around the country in 1934 that helped change the relationship between American workers and employers and advance collective bargaining. The U.S. Department of Labor specifically identifies Toledo's Auto-Lite strike as one of the major labor upheavals of that historic year.

And Toledo's role didn't end there.  In 1935, workers struck the Toledo Chevrolet transmission plant. That dispute helped push General Motors toward negotiations and was described by a future UAW president as an enormously important step forward for automobile workers. The labor unrest of 1934 and 1935 also helped inspire the “Toledo Plan,”an innovative local system for peacefully resolving future labor disputes.

In other words, when we talk about the history of America's labor movement, Toledo deserves a place in the conversation.

And we take that seriously. Toledo’s Labor Day celebration is one of the largest in the Midwest.  We host a massive parade every year where the women & men of all local unions march to celebrate their jobs and what having a union has done for them.  

For me it is even more special because the Labor Movement transformed my family and gave me the place I have now.  

My paternal grandparents’ start was not one that leads to a bright future.  Grandma & Grandpa Young (we called him Papa) dated as high school ended.  And well, back in the 1940's well let’s just say a “shotgun wedding” was not ideal.  But that is what they had. My Aunt was the first born only months after the wedding.  

Ever hear the term Irish Twins?  Well my father was born about a year after my aunt.  So two kids who had barely finished high school were now the parents of two kids and with no training in rural Napoleon, Ohio, about an hour west of Toledo in Henry County good jobs were not plentiful.  At the time they were both picking processing crops most of which ended up in Campbell’s Soup. 

But then Grandpa got a job with the railroads, like his father, and was a member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (BRT) which later merged into the Untied Transportation Union (UTU) and they moved to South Toledo Grandma at a time where mothers weren’t always working, got a job with Toledo Public Schools as a cafeteria worker represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).  And thanks to the good pay and training and benefits, they both worked their way up in their jobs and finances from there.  

And they raised four kids, a girl and three boys in a a two bedroom. One bath house in South Toledo (they turned the walk up attic into the boys room, And thanks to the good pay and good benefits they got, they sent 3 of the 4 off to college. The fourth was my Dad who was counting on Football to get him where he wanted to go, but unfortunately, he got hurt twice his senior year and couldn’t pass his scholarship physical for the University of Michigan.  

So Dad played instead for the Pensacola Naval Air Station Football team.  And thanks to the assistance of the US Navy and a great union job with the City of Akron represented by the same union as his mother AFSCME, he was able to go to college.  And one Uncle was a teacher and member of the Toledo Federation of Teachers.  And that Uncle and another married Teachers who were members of the Perrysburg Education Association (PEA) 

And the same was true on my Mom’s side with my Grandfather working his entire life a tool & die repairman, represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW), originally at the Champion Spark Plug Plant and later at, yep that Chevy Transmission Plant became General Motors Powertrain aka Propulsion.  My Uncle Bob, his son, followed in his footsteps and worked there as a UAW member as well.  My Grandmother started as a switchboard operator (yes they really used to plug and unplug cords to connect calls) with Communications Workers of America (CWA).  

By my generation all of us had a shot at college, with two trying it, finding a better life as a part of the building trades and they both also opened business along the way.  We also had teachers in the Gahanna Jefferson Education Association (GJEA) and Toledo Federation of Teachers (TFT).  So within two generations we went picking crops to owning businesses, being executives, working as dentists and teachers and lawyers who stand up for workers.

Why Labor Day Still Matters

The American workplace has changed tremendously since the 1930s. But the basic idea behind Labor Day hasn't.  Our country runs because people go to work.  They build our roads and buildings. They manufacture our cars and products. They teach our children. They care for our sick. They deliver our packages. They stock our stores. They keep our utilities running. They serve our food. And they perform thousands of other jobs that we rarely stop to think about.

At The Law Offices of Kurt M. Young, LLC, we've spent more than three decades representing Ohio's injured workers. That gives us a particular appreciation for something Labor Day reminds us of every year:

Behind every job is a person. And behind that person is often a family depending upon them to come home safely.

So this Labor Day, enjoy the cookout. Enjoy the long weekend. Enjoy the parade.

But take a moment to remember “why” we have the holiday—and the generations of working men and women, including many right here in Toledo, whose hard work helped build the communities, workplaces, and country we enjoy today.

To Ohio's working families, past and present:

Thank you for everything you do.

From all of us at The Law Offices of Kurt M. Young, LLC, have a safe and happy Labor Day!     

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