back to one the idea first became public in 1882 in September 1882 the unions of New York City decided to have a parade to celebrate their members being in unions and to show support for all unions at least 20,000 people were there and the workers had to give up a day's pay to attend there was also a lot of beer involved in the event fact number two the New York parade inspired other unions other regions started having parades and by 1887 Oregon Massachusetts New York New Jersey and Colorado made labor EST state holiday fact number three Labor Day is The Unofficial end of hot dog season the national hot dog and sausage Council says that between Memorial Day and Labor Day Americans will eat 7 billion hot dogs fact number four how many people are union members today according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there were 14.8 million union members in the workforce in 2017 there were 17.7 million in 1983 what is the biggest union today the National Education Association has about 3 million people who are members