The first Monday of September is the unofficial end of summer, the final day for many students' annual vacations and a day to eat grilled food.

It is also a day to commemorate the trials, triumphs and contributions of labor in the United States, with many of those events transpiring in and around Butler County.

Labor Day was established, much like the country's history of labor was forged, in a confusing and ironic time — often during many of the sacrifices and triumphs of American labor.

In 1894, Pullman Company workers in 27 states had been striking due to forced pay cuts for more than a month by the time President Grover Cleveland signed into law the resolution establishing Labor Day.

Strikers elected to stop the movement of rail cars built by Pullman on railways, originating in Chicago and radiating outward to the other states. The work stoppage affected a significant part of the country.

“The same laws that protect capital and the capitalist protect labor and the laborer,” read a July 12, 1894, Butler Eagle editorial that called for the end of “mob rule.” “They are alike essential in the safety and security of both.” Later that month, the strike failed, its leader was sentenced to prison and no significant changes were made for workers. In Butler County, akin to much of the country, their work continued to gain recognition for laborers as workers cemented their legacy in history.

'State Troops in Control'

The first of two major strikes at Butler's Standard Steel Car Co. started in earnest in July 1909, when 250 riveters walked out of the plant on a Friday morning. Workers asked for an increase to $14 from $10 per car, having received $18 each car prior to the then-recent recession, but the company said economic conditions did not warrant such a pay raise.

By 7 a.m. Saturday, more than a thousand men blocked workers from crossing the picket line, and the car works shut down.

Although the Eagle reported that Saturday there “was no violence Friday night,” it was an entirely different situation Monday.

“STATE TROOPS IN CONTROL AT PLANT OF STANDARD STEEL CAR CO,” a two-row, seven-column headline atop the July 19, 1909, Eagle screamed. “BLOOD SHED IN RIOT FOLLOWING ORDER TO DISPERSE DEFIANT MOB.”

As state troopers arrived on scene, some strikers pulled their guns, The Eagle — then spelled with a capital “T” — reported, and a fusillade of shots were fired. One worker, Andrew Boris, was struck in the back and rushed to the hospital. No update was provided on his condition in later papers. Two troopers, one worker and a storekeeper were also less critically injured.

By Monday evening, 31 strikers landed in the county jail on charges of rioting, inciting to riot and threatening to kill, and not given bail. Two weeks later, the infamous Coal and Iron Police served eviction notices to 20 strike “leaders” who lived in company homes in Lyndora.

At the end of July 1909, the state police returned to their barracks in Punxsutawney, leaving Butler “quiet and peaceful.” The strike failed to bring about changes.

Long time, little change

One decade and a world war later, conditions at Standard Steel had barely changed. In August 1919, before the Amalgamated Association's nationwide steel strike, “every man in all the departments” walked out of the Standard Steel plants, seeking higher wages and better working conditions.

The workers' demands were nine-fold: collective bargaining rights, re-hire of men fired for union activity, an eight-hour work day, a six-day work week, no 24-hour shifts, higher pay, consistent raises based on experience, overtime pay and seniority-based layoffs, the Eagle reported.

While the cost of living was 95 percent higher in 1919 than in 1915, and the average pay for unskilled steel workers was $558 below the “American standard of living,” according to a 1988 Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine article, Standard Steel insisted the company could not afford raises. “The conditions at the present time are such as to warrant reduction rather than increases in wages; therefore, the companies can grant no wage increase at this time,” a letter printed in the Aug. 13, 1919, Eagle stated. Sheriff George W. Stoner posted the “Riot Act” in Lyndora, where workers lived, prohibiting the gathering of 12 or more people at once — essentially banning picketing. After a week of little to no violence, a non-union employee was threatened for crossing the picket, giving Stoner the opportunity to call state police, who arrived and patrolled Lyndora.

The workers did not respond to the state police presence with violence. But Standard Steel responded to the strike by evicting or foreclosing on strikers' homes.

While the strike lasted significantly longer, at least 10 weeks, it ended the same: no significant improvement to working conditions for the thousands of factory workers at Standard Steel. In January, while the Amalgamated Association's strikes were breaking up, the one in Butler did as well.

Preparing for war

Butler residents still participated in much of the war preparations when the country was in need. Before the United States joined World War I, a Butler man, Lee Whittaker, traveled to New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, in 1915 to work in a mill manufacturing munitions for the then-European conflict, according to an Eagle report.

That same year, Standard Steel was selected to build a million artillery shells for the Entente Powers, as well as axles for four allied governments. During World War II, the American Bantam Car Co. was selected to build 70 Army trucks 18 months before Pearl Harbor. These small armored cars were called “mighty midgets” and marked Butler County as the birthplace of the Jeep.

American Bantam won the first contract because its engine was the most fuel-efficient built under the government's specifications.

In April 1941, Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Co., a merger of Pullman and Standard, was selected to produce 6-inch artillery shells for the British military, and the War Department ordered $4.65 million of material from the Butler plant three months later.

Many county businesses took part in the war effort. The Spaide Shirt Co. won a bid to produce 100,000 Army shirts. An unnamed company “that formerly made egg beaters” switched over to make shell fuses.

The story of labor in Butler County — which will be celebrated Monday — is no less storied than that of the country as a whole.