USPS logo LINK — USPS employee news Printable

Honoring American workers

Labor Day pays tribute to their ‘strength, freedom and leadership’

The USPS Rose the Riveter stamp
In 1999, USPS released a Rosie the Riveter stamp featuring an illustration of the labor icon.

Monday, Sept. 2, is Labor Day, the holiday celebrating the contributions of workers to the fabric of American life.

The holiday was first celebrated in New York City in 1882. As unions expanded throughout the nation, Labor Day events grew in popularity, and in 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed the bill declaring the first Monday in September a federal holiday.

The Postal Service has more than 640,000 workers.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s website has a history of the holiday, describing it as a tribute “to the creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom, and leadership — the American  worker.”