Labor Day

Labor Day. Written by Kara Fried. Focus Question. Why is Labor Day important?

《劳动节》 作者：卡拉·弗里德 思考问题 劳动节为什么这么重要呢？

Back to School Many students in the United States go back to school right after Labor Day. The first Monday in September. For those students, this holiday means the end of summer. It's a time to have fun before the school year starts. Government offices and many businesses close. Many towns and cities hold parades and picnics. Labor Day isn't just a day to take it easy, though. It's also a day to honor American workers, past and present. To understand what Labor Day honors, it's important to learn about the history of workers in the United States.

返校季 美国很多学生都会在劳动节过后回到学校上课 劳动节定在九月的第一个星期一 对这些学生来说，这个假期意味着夏天结束了 这是新学年开始前好好玩耍的日子 政府机关和很多商家都会关门休息 很多城镇都会举办游行和野餐活动 不过劳动节不只是用来放松休息的日子 它也是纪念美国过去和现在所有劳动者的日子 想要了解劳动节的纪念意义，我们先要了解美国劳动者的历史

Machines and Workers In the late 1700s and early 1800s, many new kinds of machines were invented. People who had money to buy the machines started to make more money. However, machines now did jobs that poorer people used to do. Many of those people moved to cities and went to work in factories. They no longer had any other way to make money. Many factory owners wanted to pay workers as little as possible. Workers were afraid they would lose their jobs if they asked for more money. In the 1800s, low pay, long working hours, and unsafe workplaces were common.

机器与工人 18世纪末到19世纪初，人们发明了很多新型机器 有钱购买机器的人赚到了更多的钱 但是，原本穷人做的工作现在都被机器取代了 这些穷人大多搬到城市，进入工厂做工 他们再也找不到其他谋生的方式 很多工厂主只想给工人开尽可能少的工资 工人们害怕要求涨薪就会丢掉工作 19世纪的时候，低薪、长工时、危险的工作环境非常普遍

tough jobs. Many workers in the 1800s didn't get much time off. At that time, the United States had no rules about how many hours people worked each day or week. Many factory workers worked 100 hours a week. That's about 14 hours every day. They worked as much as they were told to because they didn't want to lose their jobs.

艰苦的工作 19世纪的工人几乎没有什么休假时间 那时候，美国没有任何法规规定每天、每周的工作时长 很多工厂工人每周要工作100个小时 差不多相当于每天工作14小时 他们只能按照要求拼命干活，因为不想丢掉工作

child labor. Many children were also forced to work. By the early 1800s, about two million children were working in mills or factories. Children often held jobs before the age of seven. Many worked six days a week for up to eighteen hours each day. They had little time for rest and no time for school or play. Many children became sick from the long hours at work.

童工问题 很多孩子也被迫出去工作 到19世纪初，大约有两百万儿童在磨坊或工厂做工 很多孩子还不到七岁就开始工作了 很多孩子每周工作六天，每天要干足足18个小时 他们几乎没有时间休息，更没时间上学玩耍 长时间的劳作让很多孩子都病倒了

Workers join together. Over time, workers wanted more of a say in how they were treated. Groups of workers came together to form labor unions to protect their rights in the workplace. Labor unions try to get companies to agree to better hours, pay, and safer workplaces. Unions sometimes call for workers to stop working, or strike, to get a better deal at their jobs. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant made a new rule that government workers only had to work eight hours each day. Soon after, people started working to get a law passed that would do the same for all workers.

工人们团结起来 久而久之，工人们希望能对自己的待遇拥有更多话语权 工人们集结起来组建了工会，来保护自己的工作权益 工会努力争取让企业同意更好的工时、更高的薪水和更安全的工作环境 工会有时会号召工人停工，也就是罢工，来争取更好的工作待遇 1869年，尤利西斯·S·格兰特总统颁布新规，规定政府工作人员每天只工作八小时 没过多久，人们就开始推动立法，希望所有工人都能享受八小时工作制