Watch the video clip about Labor Day and write down every word you hear as a dictation exercise. 

Key

How's this for a strange idea: a day off fromwork in honor of work itself? Actually, that is what LaborDay, celebrated in the United States andCanada on the first Monday of every September, is all about.

The first American Labor Day wascelebrated in New York City on September 5th, 1882, asthousands of workers and their families came to Union Square for a day in thepark. It was not a national holiday, but had been organized by a union to honorworkers and their hard efforts with a rare day of rest, halfway between July 4thand Thanksgiving. There were picnics and a parade, but there werealso protests. The workers had gathered, not just to rest and celebrate, but todemand fair wages, the end of child labor, and the right to organize intounions.

During the period known as the IndustrialRevolution, many jobs were difficult, dirty and dangerous. People worked fortwelve hours, six days a week, without fringe benefits, suchas vacations, health care and pensions. And if you were young,chances are you were doing manual labor instead of your ABCs and fractions.Children as young as ten worked in some of the most hazardous places,like coal mines or factories filled with boiling vats ordangerous machines.

Trying to win better pay, shorter hours andsafer conditions, workers had begun to form labor unions in America and Canada,but the companies they worked for often fought hard to keep unions out andto suppress strikes.At times, this led to violent battles betweenworkers and business owners with the owners often backed up by the police oreven the military.

In the following years, the idea of Labor Daycaught on in America with official celebrations reaching 30 states. But thencame the violent Haymarket Square Riot of 1886,which led to the deaths of several policemen andworkers in Chicago and the execution of four union leaders. After that, manylabor and political groups around the world had begun to mark Haymarket Square on May 1st, whichbecame known as International Workers' Day.

In 1894, President Grover Cleveland singed thelaw making Labor Day a federal holiday in America, only days after he had sent12000 soldiers to end a violent railroad strike thatresulted in the death of several people. The original September date was kept,partly to avoid the more radical associations of May 1st.Canada also created its Labor Day in 1894. But, in spite of this new holiday, it would be a long time beforethe changes that workers wanted became a reality.

In 1938, during the Great Depression that leftmillions without jobs, President Franklin D. Roosevelt singed a law calling for an eight-hour work day, afive-day work week, and an end to child labor, some of the first federalprotections for American workers.

As America and Canada celebrate Labor Day, mostof the two countries' children enjoy a day off from school. But it is importantto remember that there was a time that every day was a labor day for childrenin America and Canada, and unfortunately, the same fact remains true formillions of children around the world today.