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This Monday, Labor Day September 4 will see the largest Labor Day parade in memory, Greater St. Louis Labor Council President Pat White announced today, inviting the public to bring their family, lawn chairs and sun visors to what will be an exciting, fun-filled two hours.

More than 5,000 marchers from 30 unions with miles of equipment, trucks, floats, marching bands, drill teams and other units will step off at 9 a.m. from 15th and Olive, go east to Tucker Blvd., south to Market and west on Market to the parade stand at 15th and Market where it will end. Following the parade numerous unions will have picnics in the park between Chestnut and Market.

Parade Marshalls are St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger. The parade’s theme, “Together We Win,” highlights and displays the skills and services union members in all walks of life provide as well as celebrating the importance of ALL working men and women who have indeed made, and continue to make, America great, White said.

Leading the parade will be several unions celebrating anniversaries, St. Louis Musicians Local 2-197 band and the Roosevelt High School Marine Corps Junior ROTC Color Guard. Also marching will be the United States Navy Great Lakes Band and six other St. Louis marching units from area high schools.

And there will be lots of candy for the kids being distributed from the many floats, trucks and cars and the thousands of union marchers. “Before it’s all over, there will be at least a ton of candy given out. The kids love it. It’s better than Halloween!” added White.

Spaced throughout the parade will be the electrifying Wichita Dynamic Steppers Drill Team and Drum Line from Wichita, Kansas, the Hazelwood Central Marching Band (sponsored by Electrical Workers Local 1), the McClure South High School Marching Band, the Spirits of New Northside Drill Team (from the Northside Family Life Center), the St. Louis Marching Cobras and Musicians Local 2-197.

PRIOR TO THE ST. LOUIS PARADE

Preceding the parade will be a three-stage “Save the Wage” Rally:

• 6 a.m. protest at the McDonald’s on 1119 N. Tucker to protest cutting back the current $10 an hour wage to $7.65 more than 30,000 workers;
• 7 a.m. – march from McDonalds to a public rally.
• 8 a.m.- rally at 18th and Olive to urge more St. Louis’ businesses to maintain the $10 an hour wage that been already agreed to by over 100 firms.

ILLINOIS EVENTS

Additionally, there will be Labor Day parades and festivities in:

• Granite City – Parade will begin at 10 a.m. downtown and proceed one mile north to Wilson Park for a picnic with live music, speeches, food, refreshments and kids’ activities.
• Belleville – Parade will step off at 10 a.m. in the fourth block of South 1st Street, ending at Hough Park with the annual picnic, where the first $500 worth of rides will be free. Music, drinks and food will be available.

Pat White, President of the Greater St. Louis Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO issued the following statement in response to executive orders issued by President Donald Trump last week.

Like so many of our brothers and sisters, we were horrified to watch over the last week as the President issued executive orders that threaten to criminalize immigrant communities, increase racial and ethnic profiling, erode due process, and in an affront to our most cherished values, use religion as a litmus test to turn away people seeking protection at our shores.  These orders threaten to tear apart the threads that bind our country and our labor movement.  Instead of uprooting and deporting our coworkers, neighbors, families and friends, we must bind together in solidarity and fight for policies that will promote real economic and racial justice in our country.

These are hard days for our movement and our members, locally and nationally.  Although we don’t often talk about it, the roots of our local movement were planted by Irish and German immigrants who endured persecution. They endured that violence to build the power to fight for work with dignity and demand just working conditions for us and for the sakes of our families. We found strength in our diverse membership in 1978 when we first had to fend off deceptively named Right to Work, as we do in this moment when we find ourselves fighting off the onslaught of Missouri Legislature hostile to the needs of our working families.

We commit ourselves to standing with our brothers and sisters in this moment.  Working people have endured worksite and community raids before.  We recognize these raids for what they are – an attempt to keep working people afraid and weaken their collective power to join together as labor unions.  As a labor movement, we represent thousands of refugee members, as well as the front line service providers who ensure that refugees are properly screened and have their basic human needs addressed. As our political climate grows more divisive, we must reach for each other to deepen solidarity and increase our strength.  We will continue to demand that our nation’s leaders take action to lift working people up, rather than making it even harder for us to get ahead.  Our country needs more bridges into the middle class, not walls to divide us.

By Mark Esters and Pat White

Originally seen on St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The labor movement has been fighting for decades to maintain the recognition of all working families by advocating for all who seek a better life. It is the principle under which we have been advocating for real improvements like an increase in the minimum wage, paid sick days and other ways that enable families to prosper. We fight for the rights of working people, civil rights, voting rights, and laws and policies that protect our nation and all its people.

The labor movement today finds itself facing concerted attacks by the far right, attacks funded by billionaires who have a narrow and greed-driven agenda that would roll back many of the life-improving achievements that working people have won in years gone by. These include attacks on collective bargaining rights like a so-called “right to work” law, a repeal of prevailing wage laws, and the elimination of worker protections that safeguard our health, our dignity and our ability to sustain a family. Working people are standing up and fighting these attacks, and here in America, the power and dignity of working people will always win — as long as we stay united.

The question of unity brings up a hard subject: the subject of race in America and what that means for our communities, our movement and our nation. We must face this subject with courage and with a genuine willingness to listen to each other. In doing so, we can get about the business of addressing some of the economic and social problems that underlie the very real issue of inequality in America.

Acknowledging the staggering racial disparity that exists in our society is an important first step in this undertaking. Minority unemployment is twice that of whites in the St. Louis region. Minorities are likely to earn significantly less than their white counterparts. Huge disparities exist in health care, education and the quality of our neighborhoods. The labor movement was made to address problems such as these and can and will do so in the years and decades to come. But it will be anything but easy.

The labor movement can use its collective voice and organizing capability to help reduce the employment gap. Incorporating the voices of low-wage workers and young people will be an essential part of this work to bring about tangible results in the lives of all who work for a living. In our fight for education equality, the working men and women of our movement have sought to preserve a strong system of public education as our number one tool to provide all people with a pathway toward a better life.

There are very recent examples of how this can and should be conducted. Indeed, this August, a minimum wage increase was approved in the city of St. Louis — a very important improvement in the lives of countless working people who deserve to be paid for the work they do. The labor movement has been a driving force behind this and a number of other wage-raising initiatives in Missouri and around the country. Organizing more minority and low-wage workers will empower working people and further enable our efforts to combat inequality across the board.

Some may question what the appropriate role for labor should be as we, as a nation, grapple with the complex and important struggles with regard to race relations today. When National AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka came to Missouri last year to deliver a powerful and inspirational speech on the subject, he asked “How can we not be involved?” While discussing the Michael Brown tragedy, he said: “Union members’ lives have been profoundly damaged in ways that cannot be fixed. Lesley McSpadden, Michael Brown’s mother who works in a grocery store, is our sister, an AFL-CIO union member. And Darren Wilson, the officer who killed Michael Brown, is a union member too and he is our brother,” he said. “Our brother killed our sister’s son, and we do not have to wait for the judgment of prosecutors or courts to tell us how terrible this is.”

President Trumka hit the nail on the head. We find ourselves at a critical juncture on very important matters of inequality that impact us all. Issues of civil rights and workers’ rights can and will be addressed by a unified movement of working men and women, white and black, union and nonunion. This pursuit necessitates that our movement be as inclusive as possible, founded on the principles of fairness, justice and family that will guide our way toward economic stability for all. Joined together as a movement, working people are empowered to fight back against well-funded and concerted attacks from the far right. We can only do so if we stand tall, stand proud and stand together in speaking up for each other as we continue this long, united journey.

Mark Esters is president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unions St. Louis Metro Region. Pat White is president of the Greater St. Louis Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

This year’s theme: ‘Stand With Working Families’

A lottery drawing at the St. Louis Labor Council’s July meeting has set the parade line-up for the Greater St. Louis Labor Council’s Labor Day Parade on Sept. 7. All except for Sheet Metal Workers (SMART) Local 36, which requests it always be the last unit in the parade, were selected at the meeting.

This year’s parade theme is “Stand with Working Families.”

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Attorney General (and 2016 candidate for governor) Chris Koster have been invited to serve as grand marshals.

Groups will start forming at 7 a.m. on Olive Street between Jefferson and 15^th Street.

The parade will step off at 9 a.m. led by the mayor, police chief and fire chief, and immediately followed by a horse-drawn trolley with 20 members of the Musicians Association of St. Louis Local 2-197, and proceed east on Olive at 15^th to Tucker Blvd., south on Tucker to Market Street, then west on Market to 15^th.

LINE-UP

The remaining parade lineup from front to back:

• IATSE Stagehands Local 6
• Gas Workers Local 11-6
• IBEW Locals 1, 2, 4, 1439 and IUOE Local 148
• Laborers Locals 42, 53, 110 and 660
• Bricklayers Local 1 and Insulators Local 1
• Machinists and Aerospace Workers
• Teamsters Locals 600, 610, 618, 682 and 688
• Decorators/Displaymen Local 39
• Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 562
• Carpenters District Council
• St. Louis Police Officers Association
• CWA Locals 6300, 6350 and City Council
• Painters District Council 58 and Glaziers Local 513
• Iron Workers Local 396
• Cement Masons Local 527
• Operating Engineers Local 513
• APWU STL Gateway & NALC Branch 343
• UAW Locals 2250 and 282
• UFCW Local 655
• CBTU
• Firefighters Locals 2665, 73 and West County EMS
• AFT St. Louis Local 420
• SEIU Local 1 and SEIU Health Care
• Roofers Local 2
• Sprinkler Fitters Local 268
• Elevator Constructors Local 3
• Amalgamated Transit Union Local 788
• SMART Local 36

Contact our office for any additional information

Also printed in The Labor Tribune 

by Lydia Saad (as seen in Gallop)

PRINCETON, N.J. — Americans’ approval of labor unions has jumped five percentage points to 58% over the past year, and is now at its highest point since 2008, when 59% approved. In the interim, the image of organized labor had suffered, sinking to an all-time low of 48% in 2009.

Gallup first asked Americans about organized labor in 1936, a year after Congress legalized private-sector unions and collective bargaining. At that time, 72% of Americans approved of unions. Support remained high into the 1960s, but then dipped through the 1970s until it reached 55% in 1979. It has since varied, reaching as high as 66% in 1999 and as low as the 48% in 2009.

The latest results are from the 2015 installment of Gallup’s annual Work and Education survey, conducted Aug. 5-9.

Consistent with the recent increase in approval of unions, the percentage of Americans saying they would like labor unions to have more influence in the country has also been rising, and now stands at 37%, up from 25% in 2009. Meanwhile, the percentage wanting unions to have less influence has declined from 42% to 35%, although it remains higher than it was from 1999 through 2008. Instead, fewer today say they want unions’ influence to stay the same.

There are a few interesting demographic differences. For example, on both questions, support for unions is higher among women than men. Specifically, 63% of women compared with 52% of men approve of labor unions. Also 41% of women vs. 33% of men want unions to have more influence. Favorable views of unions are significantly higher in the East, Midwest and West than in the South. In fact, the South is the only region where less than half of residents approve of unions. Perhaps most positive for the future of unions is the finding that young adults, those aged 18 to 34, are the most supportive of all age groups.

In terms of politics, Democrats are the most supportive of unions, with 79% approving and 55% wanting unions to have more influence. While close to half of Republicans approve of unions, just 18% want them to have more influence — 53% want them to have less. The views of independents fall a little closer to Republicans’ than Democrats’ on both questions.

Americans Perceive Union Power Is Waning

Although Americans have become more pro-union, their perceptions of the outlook for union power haven’t changed in the past few years. Fifty-three percent believe unions will be weaker in the future, similar to the result each year since 2011. In most years prior to that, between 41% and 48% thought union power would dwindle, while a higher percentage than today thought it would stay the same.

Who Belongs?

Approximately one in eight working adults in the U.S. (12%) belong to a labor union, equivalent to 8% of all Americans. More broadly, 17% of Americans live in a household where at least one person belongs to a union. But, notably, this varies markedly by region, with just 6% of adults in the South living in a union household, compared with 18% in the West and roughly a quarter in the East (24%) and Midwest (23%). Membership is also higher among nonwhites (24%) than whites (13%), and among Democrats (24%) than Republicans and independents (13% each). There are smaller differences by gender, and almost none by age.

Bottom Line

With the economy continuing to do better than it did during the recession and the 2008 government bailout of two of the Big Three American auto companies — for which unions’ image may have suffered — fading further into history, Americans’ views of unions are largely restored to what they were six years ago. The solid majority approve of unions, and most would like to see unions’ power strengthened, or at least maintained.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Aug. 5-9, 2015, with a random sample of 1,011 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

View survey methodology, complete question responses, and trends.

Learn more about how Gallup Poll Social Series works.