Donald Trump and his MAGA minions
want to destroy working Americans.
The Democratic Party and the media won’t help.
It’s up to us.
Plan Now For Pittsburgh’s 42nd Labor Day Parade
We need a huge turnout to vanquish MAGA and deliver our message this year.
May 26, 2025
On Monday September 1, Americans will celebrate our 144th Labor Day.
The Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council will host its 42nd parade in downtown Pittsburgh.
(They skipped 2020 and 2021 because COVID.)
Those parades were the largest in the country while former Council President Jack Shea was in office.
Nearly 200 groups and 40,000 people participated.
Downtown Pittsburgh was filled with marchers and spectators, floats, trucks, flags, and more.
Now, participation is barely half of what it once was.
And there are very few spectators.
We must change that.
The current “leadership” showed up when Shea retired in 2017. Now, participation and attendance have plummeted because they refuse to promote their own event. There’s never been a single word about the parade, which they sponsor, on their own website or in their own events calendar.
Most Pittsburghers don't even know there is a parade, or when Labor Day is, because we tolerate defective schools.
We also tolerate our negligent local media. Not a single media source in the region lists the ANNUAL parade in their profuse Coming Events lists.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has never bothered to list it in advance. They’ll post a small story online afterward.
The PG always gets the number of years wrong too.
HISTORY OF LABOR DAY
Everything good about your standard of living came to you through the organized labor movement.
First celebrated by the Knights of Labor in 1882, Congress proclaimed the first Monday in September as Labor Day, a national holiday, in 1894.
From the beginning, organized labor celebrated the day with parades, picnics, and festivals.
That tradition endures.
BENEFITS OF UNIONS
Labor unions brought benefits to every working person in America, whether they belonged to a union or not.
Unions created the American middle class.
We take these things for granted, but none of them existed before the rise of the unions.
IF YOU HAVE:
• An eight-hour workday
• A five day work week
• Paid sick days, vacation days, and holidays
• Family and medical leave
• Health, life, and disability insurance
• A pension
• Safe and healthy working conditions
• Proper job training
THEN THANK A UNION MEMBER. Photo Credit: Ironworkers Local 3
Unions have won the minimum wage, wage and hour laws, child labor regulations, and workers’ rights and privacy on the job. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, union workers make more money than non-union workers in all types of occupations. Union workers are better trained and less likely to be involved in workplace accidents and deaths.
If you benefit from any of these things, THEN THANK A UNION MEMBER.
Unions created the day to honor all workers.
Labor Day is especially important now when Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Republicans, corporations, courts, and the federal government are attacking American workers like never before.
Today, our unions still fight for all of us while the Chambers of Commerce, the Republican Party, MAGAthugs, and others try desperately to destroy us. They’re not only trying to destroy unions. They’re coming for you next. “Right to Work” laws are gaining ground again because Republicans are lying to you about what they are. The laws do not protect your right to a job.
They only protect profits for corporations. Only the unions can protect your working rights.
Unions made our lifestyle possible. If you want to keep it, then support our unions. And show up for Labor Day.
We must show our union spirit and stick together.
No one questions business owners’ rights to stick together to support their interests, but many employers are outraged when employees do the same thing. Chambers of commerce, business and trade associations, and others actively promote business interests to the government and the public. Yet they don’t want workers to have anyone protecting our rights, and will often break the law to break the unions.
Unions represent the common interests of all workers to the business owners, the government, and the public. If unions aren’t necessary anymore, then why do corporations spend billions of dollars every year trying to destroy them?
As President John F. Kennedy said,
"The American labor movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America. Those who would destroy or further limit the rights of organized labor--those who cripple collective bargaining or prevent organization of the unorganized--do a disservice to the cause of democracy."
If we let them beat us, all Americans will suffer.
THIS YEAR’S PARADE
I’ve marched with my husband and Iron Workers Local 3 in every Pittsburgh Labor Day parade since 1982, and we’ve always had a wonderful time. We’ve never missed one. After our son was born in 1990, he joined us. We’ve been there together through illness, injury, surgery, wedding, childbirth, rain, and shine. I don’t know anyone else who’s done that.
It’s second only to Christmas in our family. So parade with us on Monday, September 1.
I’m posting this now because Memorial Day is the traditional beginning of summer.
Labor Day is the traditional end. We have NINETY-EIGHT DAYS to deliver our message of Labor Solidarity:
Join us at the Labor Day Parade to protect ourselves
and to show the world how important working people are to our country.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Spread this information everywhere. Add this link to every post. Email it. Call your people. Get a group together.
Urge your union, friends, and families to promote it too.
If you belong to a union, find out where to meet your group. If not, then come to watch. Wave to your friends and neighbors. See your teachers, your mail carrier, your bus driver, the local hotel and restaurant staff, TV and radio personalities, news reporters, employees at your health care facilities, and the construction workers who erect our buildings, and say “thank you”. I promise to wave back.
Many union locals host picnics and such afterward, for their members and families.
If you don’t belong to a union, you can show your solidarity by joining Working America.
And on this of all days, remember.
WE ARE ONE.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Read the Constitution
Labor Unions: Myths and Facts
AFL-CIO – This site has links to all of its member unions
Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council
The History of Labor Day
Working America
Right to Work is a Scam: The Laws Do Not Protect Your Rights
Your own union Web site - Try Goooooooooogle
My Favorite Ironworker (c) Patricia A. O'Malley
Contact Pat to get email notice of all new Community Matters articles.
We need a big, loud, vibrant, committed crowd this year to defeat the Trump/Musk/MAGA stunts.
Since we can’t count on our standard media to generate attention and participation,
we have to do it ourselves.
WHO: Participants begin assembling at about 8:00 AM in the area around the Paints Arena and Liberty Avenue. Politicians and dignitaries lead the marchers, which include union locals, high school bands, assorted entertainment groups, and plenty of floats, trucks, motorcycles, dogs, and babies.
WHEN: The parade begins at 10:00 AM on Liberty Avenue.
The parade ends around 1:00 PM, so you still have plenty of time to do your usual stuff.
WHERE: We will travel down Liberty, along Grant Street, and down the Boulevard of the Allies to the United Steelworkers Building on Stanwix Street.
WHAT ELSE: Every marcher gets a T-Shirt and a hat.
Now if that’s not an incentive, I don’t know what is.
Patricia A. O'Malley
Social Policy & Programs Consulting ~ Community Matters
412-310-4886 ~ info@patomalley-consulting.com
Copyright Patricia A. O'Malley ~ All rights reserved
Established 1993
Patricia A. O'Malley
Social Policy & Programs Consulting
Training and Services for agencies working toward social and economic justice