Today is Labor Day -- the first Monday in September -- when the U.S. recognizes the contributions workers have made to the country.

Among the millions of U.S. workers, an unknown number of people clock in outside of the standard 9-to-5 workday. Some work until midnight, while others continue on through the wee hours of the morning and until the sun rises.

The Maine Department of Labor doesn't keep statistics on how many people in the state are working night shifts. According to the 2006 American Community Survey, 16.7 million U.S. commuters leave for work between midnight and 5:59 a.m.

To shed light on the local workforce, here are snapshots of people who make businesses work during night shifts:

Amy Jones

Age: 51

Town of residence: Hallowell

Job: Cook, Slates Restaurant in Hallowell

Shifts: 3-10 p.m.

Most nights after Slates Restaurant closes, at 10 p.m., the employees sit together and have a communal dinner. They try out the food they've been cooking and talk about how the night went.

"I like that," said Amy Jones, who's been a cook at the restaurant for 25 years.

For Jones, her job has remained interesting and attractive all these years, so she's stuck with it. She is a self-taught cook -- did not go to school for cooking -- but she "just fell into the job and I loved it, so I stayed with it."

Jones likes how the restaurant changes the menu frequently, though not daily like it used to before a fire in February 2006. The restaurant had to close for a year before reopening anew.

Still, the spice of variety continues keeps things interesting for Jones. As a vegetarian, her specialties include seafood and fruit dishes.

"There's a lot of room for creativity and we try out new recipes, use fresh foods," she said. "I love doing that because I love to cook."

She also enjoys the company of her fellow employees, most of which have worked there for a long time like Jones and are her best friends. During a shift, there are usually three cooks.

Cooking at Slates at night, she said, has a more "festive tone" than during the day, and people come in for birthdays and other celebrations. That means people are usually "eating nicer food and experimenting more," which adds to the enjoyment, she said.

Working nights has had its drawbacks over the years.

"I've had three children, all while working at Slates, and sometimes that's been difficult when they have night activities and I need to cook them dinner," she said.

Now, with her children grown, "I'm happy with it and will continue as long as I can."

"It's flexible, which is nice. I do like to take time off to visit family."

Kurt Norweg

Age: 52

Town of residence: Norridgewock

Job: UPS tractor-trailer driver

Shift: 8 p.m.-8 a.m.

It's just after 8 p.m. at the UPS center at 70 Industrial St. in Waterville. Kurt Norweg, wearing brown pants, shirt and baseball cap, hops up into a tractor-trailer truck and backs it up to a second trailer. For a half-hour he's busy hooking up the 70-foot long, double trailer, meticulously inspecting the tires, chains and tractor body.

Three and a half hours and 180 miles later, he'll arrive at a large "hub" center in Chelmsford, Mass. It will be 8 a.m. by the time he's finished his shift.

He holds the "Circle of Honor" distinction of recently being recognized by UPS for going 28 years without having an accident or safety snafu. To play it safe, Norweg keeps a safe distance away from all other vehicles on the road.

"You can't be too wild with a tractor-trailer," he said. "It's a different attitude in a big truck as opposed to a car."

Norweg started working for UPS by chance. The Lewiston native previously had worked at tire companies. One day, a neighbor, who was also a UPS supervisor, said he needed an employee to help load delivery trucks.

"It just kind of happened," Norweg said. He worked as a truck loader for two years and later became a delivery-truck driver.

He's been with UPS for 33 years now and has been driving tractor-trailer, or "feeder," trucks for the last 15. Instead of driving the package-delivery trucks that go to homes and businesses, he drives large loads of packages to and from UPS centers throughout the region, at which the packages are sorted and delivered.

By his estimate, as a UPS driver he travels 1,800 miles a week, almost 7,000 miles a month and 80,000 miles a year. Norweg likes his job because it's "extremely varied," traveling all across Maine and New England. He's also had to drive through some harsh weather.

"You have to not worry about that; go whatever speed you can go," he said. "I tell new drivers: Don't listen to the weather report. Only go as fast as it's safe to go."

Rhonda Caldwell

Age: 49

Town of residence: Newport

Job: Service Mount Technology operator and line reader, GE Security in Pittsfield

Shift: 9:30 p.m.-6 a.m.

Rhonda Caldwell sees her and her colleagues as a unique bunch.

"You got to be a little bit crazy to work third shift," Caldwell said. "It takes a different kind of breed. We've had the same crew here pretty much. We don't have a big turnover here at third shift."

Caldwell worked on and off at the GE Security plant in Pittsfield for the last 20 years and has been at her position for seven years. The company builds the computer boards used for security and safety devices such as smoke alarms.

Caldwell grew up in Pittsfield and, after high school, had training building machines for Panasonic. She was attracted to the job at GE Security because it was "one of the best paying jobs in the facility."

She's in charge of overseeing a row of four or five machines that are gluing together and assembling the computer parts. The large, brightly lit space in which she works during her shift is buzzing with machines and computers being monitored by other workers in blue jackets and safety goggles.

Her job is important, she said, because if machines start to malfunction the assemblies will fail, costing a lot of money.

The job, she said, allows her to be independent, and she feels good about "working for your living and doing a good job. Being gainfully employed nowadays is a good thing."

"It's a lot calmer in here at night; the staff is smaller," she said, because there are 14 people on shift instead of the hundreds during the day. "And there are a lot less politics."

Sherry Dawes

Age: 37

Town of residence: Athens

Job: Shift leader, cashier, Al's Pizza in Skowhegan

Shift: 2 or 4 p.m.-10, 11 p.m.

More than a decade ago, it was near closing time when a local man walked into Al's Pizza in Skowhegan. He approached Sherry Dawes at the cash register, brandished a dishtowel that he said concealed a gun, and demanded money.

Dawes looked at the dishtowel; she could tell there was a hammer, not a gun, beneath it. And the man was likely intoxicated, because he was having difficulty standing up, she said.

She refused to hand over any money. Diminished, the man gave up and left.

"I knew at the time he couldn't get me," Dawes said. "That's a story I tell people a lot. I cannot make up something like this."

Fortunately for Dawes, who's been working at the pizzeria for 20 years, that robbery was an exception instead of a rule. But it's just one of the realities of working a late shift, she said.

In general, she sees lots of positives to her job.

"I like my job; the contact with people," Dawes said. "I've made so many relationships with the customers I've had through the years and I just love it.

"They like the fact that you know what they want; they know immediately what you want and they don't have to wait."

Dawes admits that she prefers working mornings instead of nights, because "everyone seems to be more cheerful in the morning."

Dawes prides herself on her money-counting skills and being social with customers and co-workers. Her goal is to "make the customer feel like they're important, that they're the most important thing."

Customer service is also about being patient with people, she said. For instance, with food prices at record highs, some customers "don't understand that costs go up on us, too." Even so, "you don't snap back at them."

Nancy Cayford

Age: 56

Town of residence: Waterville

Job: Front desk associate, Best Western in Waterville

Shift: 3-11 p.m.

For Nancy Cayford, it's all about conversations.

Conversations with ordinary guests who check in at the Best Western hotel in Waterville. Conversations with employees.

And conversations with movie star Ed Harris and the film crew for the 2005 movie "Empire Falls." She'll always cherish that memory from 2005, when the crew came to film in Waterville and workers stayed at the hotel.

"It was fun, because we'd chat like we were all friends," she said.

Cayford enjoys her night shift because she gets to do errands in the morning and be at work for 3. She'll check in guests, make reservations, and help people out in any way she can. "There's always something to do; it's not a dull job at all," she said.

The late hours, though, sometimes attract problems.

"In the evening, when I come in, people want to check in early. People might be partying. You get people who come in and are very tired, cranky, so you have to have a smile on your face," Cayford said. "It's not easy sometimes, but you have to maintain a professionalism."

When problems have arisen -- loud guests or other mischief -- she and other employees aim to "take control of the situation."

But those headaches aside, Cayford relishes every chance she gets to meet new people and learn something.

"You just learn so much from everyone," she said.

Rodney Alderman

Age: 46

Town of residence: Fairfield

Job: Rescue technician, Waterville Fire-Rescue

Shift: 24-hour shift, 7-7 a.m.

In winter 2007, an emergency report came in of a dog that had fallen off the TwoCent Bridge and into the frigid Kennebec River.

The captain of the Waterville Fire-Rescue department sent Rodney Alderman down to the scene. He got into his cold-water rescue suit, tied ropes around himself and as other responders arrived he went under the bridge and dove onto an ice shelf. He broke off from the ropes and fell in the water as well, but was able to swim back to shore with the dog, Mitzi.

"It's a great job. I don't think I'd want to do anything else."

Alderman has been a rescue tech at Waterville Fire-Rescue for 17 years. Shifts can sometimes run 36 or 48 hours long, depending on what emergencies are happening, but a typical shift is 24 hours long.

Working those kind of odds hours comes natural to Alderman.

"I've never had a traditional job, I never worked Monday through Friday, 9 to 5," he said. "I was in the Army for six years. I've always worked non-traditional job with weird shifts. I've just gotten used to it."

There's usually something to do even when he and others are not responding to emergencies. There's always equipment to maintain, training and side projects within the department. Alderman, for instance, is chairman of the bicentennial-committee planning for celebrations in Watervile next year.

Most of the department's responses are medical-related, he said, ranging from a stubbed toe to a massive heart attack. "My responsibility there is emergency medical care until the paramedics arrive," he said.

Alderman doesn't take much time off: When he's not working at the fire-rescue department, he's working part time on his days off as a basic EMT for Delta Ambulance in Waterville.

"I couldn't stand being a Dilbert in a cubicle," he said. "It's just not my nature."

Also, he says, "this job is for adrenaline junkies." There's nothing like the rush of going into a burning building, he said. "Some of it is training, but you can't give them that innate quality of wanting to do that," he said. "And knowing that training I have can make a difference, like with someone is trapped under a vehicle. If I can get to them quickly enough and give them a chance -- that's part of the rush."

Scott Monroe, 861-9253, 487-3288

smonroe@centralmaine.com