Here’s How We Celebrate Labor Day

by Mike Hall, Sep 1, 2006

From marching for the freedom to form unions to honoring immigrant workers and gearing up for the fall elections, millions of union families are taking time this weekend to celebrate Labor Day. The AFL-CIO’s Labor in the Pulpits services will highlight the connections of the faith community and the union movement.

Don’t forget the daily Labor Day quiz on our Labor Day 2006 website that also offers links to movies, music, e-cards and games and union-made-in-the-USA gear and gifts to help celebrate Labor Day.

Here are the highlights of a few of the thousands of events (all scheduled for Labor Day unless otherwise noted).

Ronn Morehead, president of the Bloomington and Normal Trades and Labor Assembly in Illinois, says the group’s annual Labor Day parade will reinforce the message that workers’ rights are human rights:

Human rights are a very basic foundation of human dignity. Every human being has a right to a job with dignity, a living wage, and freedom from exploitation. This not only includes access to health care and humane living and working conditions, but also a voice in society. Working people have a right, as Americans, to a voice and a vote, not only at election time, but in their workplace too.

In Phoenix and Tucson, the Arizona AFL-CIO will host gatherings with local lawmakers and union families that will focus on the freedom to form unions, the need to increase the minimum wage and win affordable health care. And after the serious stuff, there will be food, music and even pony rides for the kids.

California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides (D) will join union families at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor’s breakfast, Mass and march that will focus on rebuilding Los Angeles’ middle class by expanding union membership and union jobs through several ongoing organizing campaigns.

In Madison, Wis., the South Central Federation of Labor’s Labor Fest ’06 includes a special outreach and salute to immigrant workers. The labor group has been working to help ensure immigrant worker rights and has established an immigrant workers’ defense team.

When working families march in the Labor Day parade in Des Moines, Iowa, they will emphasize how “Iowa needs a living wage.” Following the parade, the South Central Iowa Federation of Labor will hold its Solidarity Fest for working families.

The Austin [Texas] Area AFL-CIO Council will use the arts to tell the story about working people and struggles for dignity on the job. Solidarity—A Celebration of Labor, Film and Music will present works by local filmmakers, including the film “Talkin’ Union,” which tells the story of four women who organized low-wage workers in Texas from the 1930s to 1950. The music and films start at 7:30 p.m. at the Ruta Maya Coffee House.

In Seattle, the Martin Luther King Jr., County Labor Council is asking people who attend its Labor Day picnic to bring along a canned food donation for the Puget Sound Labor Agency food bank.

As part of the Labor Day activities in Windsor, Colo., the Northern Colorado Central Labor Council will make a special effort to recruit union members and their families to volunteer for Labor 2006 actions.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson all have a busy weekend schedule.

You can tune in Saturday to “Workin’ It with Jackie Guerra” on Air America to hear Sweeney talk about the critical fall elections, the union movement’s mobilization to take back Congress for working families and more. The one-hour show is produced in partnership with American Rights at Work. Click here to find out where to tune in.

Sweeney also will travel to Detroit and will take part in a special Labor Day forum on U.S. trade and job loss with other top labor leaders and lawmakers before joining thousand of local workers for the Detroit Labor Day parade.

Among Trumka’s stops is Saturday’s “Take Back Ohio” Labor Day parade in Parma, sponsored by the North Shore Federation of Labor. Marching with Trumka and local union members will be union-backed candidate Rep. Ted Strickland (D), who is running for governor, and U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Sherrod Brown (D).

Chavez-Thompson will travel to Tampa, Fla., to rally local union members to take part in the AFL-CIO’s political mobilization drive—from volunteering to knocking on doors, to talking to co-workers about the issues to getting out the vote on Election Day.

But as CBS correspondent Dick Meyer recently wrote, Labor Day should be celebrated for a full week.

In that spirit, the New York City Central Labor Council has set its annual Labor Day parade for Sat., Sept. 9, with a special Labor Mass to honor the dignity of workers celebrated Sept. 10 by Cardinal Edward Eagan, archbishop of New York, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

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