Happy Labor Day!

Workers on strike in 1979 pictured in the Daily News. Photo by The Weekly Nabe

We hope you’re giving your summer clothes a workout and enjoying the long weekend and unofficial end to summer. For your reading today, we’ve scheduled two pieces on Labor Day history.

The first, by our columnist Montrose Morris, looks at the beginnings of the holiday. It started in New York City when workers demanded eight-hour workdays.

Our second piece talks about five historic strikes in Brooklyn. It kicks off with the Trolley Workers Strike of 1885 and ends with the Postal Workers Strike of 1970. The latter resulted in a new law giving postal workers the right to organize.