For most Georgians, Labor Day means three-day weekend, burgers on the grill, and maybe one last trip to the lake before summer fades. But the holiday wasn’t invented to give car dealerships an excuse to run commercials with waving American flags. It’s not about mattress sales, discounts, or even football kickoff.

Labor Day is about work. More specifically, it’s about workers — which means you.

The roots of the holiday go back to the late 1800s. Back then, American workers weren’t putting in neat little 40-hour weeks. Twelve-hour days, seven days a week, in factories filled with smoke and machinery that could maim or kill you, were common. Kids as young as 10 were pressed into labor. There were no weekends, no overtime pay, no safety rules.

Workers eventually had enough. They organized.

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