Labor Day and Wisconsin’s Pioneering Role for Workers’ Rights

Slice of Wisconsin: How state history shaped the future of labor across the country, from the first unions to groundbreaking legislation

Did you know Wisconsin played a pivotal role in its commitment to improving the lives of the working class? And not just in the Badgers state, but in the United States. Support for workers’ rights here became the pioneering role model. It led to the earliest enactment of legislation supporting worker compensation and unemployment insurance. 

The city of Milwaukee was front and center of the labor movement. Research shows Wisconsin’s first unions formed in the city – the bricklayers in 1847 and carpenters in 1848. Workers connected to transportation, clothing, and printing, then followed suit. 

Workers realized, as Wisconsin’s economy grew, so did labor’s influential place in politics and society. This identity led to the formation of unions across the state.

Labor Day is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers. Labor activists pushed for a federal holiday in the late nineteenth century.
Instead, the holiday started being adopted at the state level. But on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September of each year a national holiday.

The growth, throughout the nineteenth century, kicked open an opportunity for organized labor across the nation. Industrialization transformed agriculture, mining, lumbering, and manufacturing. 

However, factories in Wisconsin and beyond, were being labeled as dangerous. And by the early twentieth century, thousands of workers were killed or hurt every year. State leaders responded in 1911 by passing one of the nation’s first compensation laws, mandating employers provide medical care and support for injured workers or their families.

Labor unions in Wisconsin turned their attention to securing unemployment compensation after World War I. It became law in 1932 and ended up offering crucial support to workers during the Great Depression. 

Wisconsin’s early efforts not only transformed its own labor landscape but laid the groundwork for rights and social reform across the country. The state’s legacy will forever remain as a pioneer of organized labor and important legislation for workers.