The American Worker By Hank Silverberg It’s Labor Day. Thousands of Americans have been on the road for the last unofficial weekend of summer. They may have been at the beach, or in the mountains. Or maybe they just stayed in the back yard with the barbecue grill. For most Americans it’s a day off. Labor Unions were the major force behind Labor Day. It was a day set aside to honor the American worker, many of them immigrants who had built railroads, skyscrapers, roads and automobiles during the height of the Industrial Revolution, and turned the United States into a world economic power. The first official national Labor Day came in 1894, by which time 30 states had already established the day to celebrate the American worker. It was the era of the robber barons, who reaped the benefit of other people’s labor. They often accused labor organizers of being anarchists or communists and sent thugs to break up their organizing meetings. (Workers on DC Metro'