Labor Day is known as the unofficial end of summer, a day to gather with friends and family, visit local beaches and parks, or wrap up your back-to-school shopping.
Labor Day officially celebrates American workers, and while it’s a regular work day for many in the local area — workers who staff the stores, beaches, parks vineyards and farms that draw thousands of visitors to the local area, and the workers who provide essential public services such as law enforcement, public safety and health care — for other workers, it’s a day off and a welcome three-day weekend.
Labor Day is federal and a New York State holiday.
Closed today in observance of the holiday:
- government offices, including Riverhead Town Hall
- courts
- U.S. post office (no mail delivery)
- schools
- Riverhead Free Library
- banks
- N.Y. Stock Exchange
- UPS & FedEx (no regular delivery)
There will be no municipal garbage collection today. The rest of the week remains on its regular schedule.
The LIRR is operating on a Sunday/holiday schedule. Trains to Penn Station leave Riverhead at 7:17 a.m. and 12:17, and 5:17 p.m. See the Ronkonkoma timetable here..
The Suffolk County Transit Routes 92 (Orient to East Hampton) and 80 (Riverhead circulator) buses are running today on a Sunday/Holiday schedule with hourly service.
Why do we celebrate Labor Day?
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.
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