Today is May 1, Labor Day. We don’t notice this much in Drenthe, except that our Eastern neighbors are present in somewhat larger numbers at the tourist hotspots, such as in Wildlands in Emmen, for example.
But why don’t we celebrate Labor Day in a bigger way?
On Labor Day, as you can tell from the name, there is special attention for people who are working hard. In most European countries this means a day off for the hard workers, but not in the Netherlands.
Labor Day was created in 1889, during the first congress of the international socialist organization Second International. This was an international organization for socialist political parties and trade unions.
During this congress it was decided to demonstrate for the rights of the workers the following year, on May 1. A large part of the commitment of the demonstration was an eight-hour working day. “Until then, there were no restrictions whatsoever for employers. Twelve-hour working days, all week long, were very normal,” says Lex Heerma van Voss, researcher at the International Institute of Social History at the NOS.
In addition, there were demonstrations for better working conditions, suffrage for workers and, not unimportantly, world peace. This demonstration on May 1, 1890, which was held in the US and much of Europe, was the first edition of the annual Labor Day event. In the Netherlands, demonstrations have been held every year on May 1 since 1890. Only almost thirty years later did these demonstrations have the intended result: the eight-hour working day and the right to vote for workers were introduced in 1919.
As mentioned, May 1 is not an official holiday in the Netherlands, and therefore not a day off. Together with Denmark, we are the only country in Europe in this regard. The reason for this partly lies in the public holidays that we already have: we always celebrated Queen’s Day on April 30, shortly afterwards it is May 5, which is a day off once every five years, and we are mainly free on church holidays, such as with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and Ascension Day.
Moreover, in the Netherlands it is customary to negotiate rather than strike or demonstrate, so the protests were not as intense and memorable as in, for example, France, Germany or Spain. As a result, the significance of Labor Day in the Netherlands has increasingly faded into the background, according to the FNV trade union.
