For many of us, it's part three of that summer trifecta of long, paid weekends — and we hope you're enjoying today at your leisure. Labor Day in this country began on an early September Tuesday in 1882 with a parade of working folks in New York City — who shared the yearnings of labor organizers in Europe. On our side of the pond, there were concerns over the connotations of the May Day celebrations and uprisings over there, where the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was gaining support.

Ours was a peaceful beginning to what Congress and President Grover Cleveland by century's end turned into a national holiday; no small accomplishment in the wake of 1886's Haymarket Riots in Chicago, where May Day was labor's time to roar.

Our politicians could see the advantage in co-opting unions, which were becoming a voting bloc capable of carrying elections. So Tuesday gave way to Monday and, for increasing numbers of workers, three days to kick back or take a trip.

In the 128 years since the first celebration, organized labor led many reforms: shorter workweeks, better pay, collective-bargaining rights, less-hazardous workplaces and, during the waning years of the Great Depression, a fair-labor-standards law that included an end to child-labor abuses.

Years went on; prosperity grew. The lines between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie faded. Organized labor had gained many of its goals.

But having accomplished so much, on behalf of so many, unions have gone into a decline: Today, only about 10 percent of private-enterprise employees are unionized — and among those who are, jobs are disappearing; technology is taking some of them, while others have been exported to where workers are easier exploited — communist China, for example.

Here at home, the minimum wage is barely creeping up. Santa Fe's $9.85 an hour is a national leader; the federal minimum only a month or so ago reached $7.25. For both those boosts, we can thank the influence organized labor still wields.

Lots of that influence today is among public-employee unions. Job security tends to be the very essence of civil service, but work conditions remain a priority among public-worker organizations — and as governmental budgets remain squeezed, those groups are playing important roles.

We're a nation of hard workers: We put in more workdays per year than any of the world's industrial leaders — including Japan: Between vacations and holidays like today, Americans get 23 days off every year. In Japan, 31 days is the average. In Europe, there's even more time off.

All the same, our country has come a long way from when Labor Day was getting going. And for all today's stress on working families, we're materially a lot better off than our great-grandparents, grandparents and parents were. For that, give credit to the working class — and a responsive hiring class as well.

Nowadays, workers are being asked to do more — for less. But many a boss, especially in the small-business sector, is sacrificing, too.

Will these troubled times take a further toll on organized labor? Or will the unions seek creative remedies for today's transnational realities? In many cases, they'll have to go easy on demands; in others, they could be crucial to keeping jobs, maybe even growing them, in this country.

We wish today's labor leaders well — and we thank those of yesteryear for being champions of the working people.