The Central Montana Central Labor Council hosted the 2024 Labor Day picnic on Monday to honor the working class at the Great Falls labor temple.
Volunteers served up hot dogs, chips, and soda.
“The Central Labor Council really wanted to support the labor movement here in Montana, especially central Montana, and we wanted to pay respect to those working-class families that are putting their lives on the line every day, making this country roll, so we want to support them and honor them with the picnic,” said JD Olsen, business agent for Teamsters Local 2.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is made up of about 60 labor unions, both nationally and internationally, committed to improving the lives of the working class.
“Most of our Teamsters in the area are truck drivers, delivery drivers, snowplow drivers. It's a lot of city workers, public works,” Olsen explained.
Each year, on Labor Day, the Central Montana Central Labor Council hosts a picnic to celebrate union workers and their families.
“The working class is what this country runs on and if we didn't have the working class, if we didn't have any blue-collar workers, the country wouldn't move. Everything from train engineers to truck drivers to electricians to plumbers, pipefitters,” said Olsen. “It takes all kinds to make this world go round and labor is at the heart of that, and we want to represent and make sure that the working class of America knows that we're here to support them and we're here for them.”
According to the U.S. Department of Labor:
Before it was a federal holiday, Labor Day was recognized by labor activists and individual states. After municipal ordinances were passed in 1885 and 1886, a movement developed to secure state legislation. New York was the first state to introduce a bill, but Oregon was the first to pass a law recognizing Labor Day, on February 21, 1887. During 1887, four more states – Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York – passed laws creating a Labor Day holiday. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.
Click here to read more about the holiday.
