Detroit unions celebrate Labor Day with parade, eyes on election

Source: Detroit Free Press

The promise of autumn, and the election that comes with it, was in the cool morning air Monday as laborers by the thousands — ironworkers, letter carriers, masons and more — took to the brick-covered streets of Detroit’s Corktown.

Clad in an array of colors representing different local units, with high school band drums beating and politicians poised to speak, the annual Labor Day parade returned to the city as much a show of solidarity for unions as a rallying call for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Harris did not attend the parade, instead addressing a union rally a few miles away at the city’s Northwestern High School, but fervor for the current vice president and the efforts of workers were seemingly one and the same in the show of force as a union town.

Chants echoing a motto of Harris, “We’re not going back,” rang across the crowd as UAW President Shawn Fain spoke at the parade’s destination in front of the Ford Motor Co.-restored Michigan Central Station.

It’s a clear choice this election, Fain told those gathered. Harris and running mate Tim Walz have been on the picket line while Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump “will be a disaster for the working class.”

Read more: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2024/09/02/detroit-labor-day-parade-draws-out-unions-with-eyes-on-election/75049096007/