Public Employee Press

Labor parade honors Iraq vets

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts joined U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, Gov. David A. Paterson, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, leaders of the city labor movement and an estimated 50,000 working people who marched up Fifth Avenue Sept. 6 in the annual Labor Day parade.

“In these tough times and with a watershed election coming, it’s important to be here and support the union,” said Computer Specialist Frederic Liu, a member of Local 2627, as he waited to march.

After celebrating Labor Day last year with a rally at Ground Zero that pressed for more government support for injured and ill 9/11 rescue and recovery workers, the Central Labor Council returned this year to the traditional Fifth Avenue parade. More than 500DC 37 members from dozens of locals marched and some rode colorful floats with music and union banners from DC 37, Local 372 and the Retirees Association.

After looking out on the huge parade from the DC 37 float, Roberts observed that the march “showed the tremendous solidarity of this labor movement and told us that we in DC 37 can expect broad support as we battle for a fair contract.”

Union marchers and observers paid tribute to this year’s honorees, the soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan who led the parade.

“A nation should be judged on how it treats its veterans, and the ­labor movement has always been there for them,” said Gary LaBarbera, president of the New York City Central Labor Council at the Saturday pre-parade breakfast, where he presented the Wounded Warriors Project with a check for $125,000. “No matter how unpopular the war in Iraq is, we have to remember and salute these fine men and women who dedicated themselves to serving our country,” he said.

Speaking at the breakfast, Mayor Bloomberg praised city employees several times and said the city has “the best workforce that anybody has ever put together.”

The day before the parade, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate had jumped to 6.1 percent in August, the highest level in five years. Since January, 605,000 jobs have been lost.

Luis Santiago, a member of Social Service Employees Union Local 371, said he could feel the recession at the Washington Heights office where he works as Job Opportunity Specialist. “They say that the number of people applying for welfare has dropped, but I don’t see it,” he said as he waited to march with co-worker Henry Bonilla. “Our office is always packed with new applicants from early in the morning until late in the afternoon. And on top of that we’re understaffed.”

The nation’s first Labor Day parade was held in Manhattan in 1882. “It’s important to have this demonstration to call attention to the achievements of organized labor and the huge problems we face in an inequitable economy,” said Ed Ott, executive director of the Central Labor Council.

Parade Chair Stuart Applebaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, stressed the importance of a Democratic victory in the November presidential election. “For us, this year, this election is as important as the election of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1932,” he said.