Labor Day parade is canceled

Detroit Free Press

August 13, 2003

Labor Day parade is canceled

BY SARAH A. WEBSTER

Tens of thousands of union brothers and sisters will not
march down Woodward Avenue on Labor Day this year,
bearing their local banners, singing songs of solidarity
and chanting political battle cries.

Detroit’s renowned Labor Day parade — one of the
largest in the nation and a longstanding platform for
Democratic presidential candidates — has been canceled,
the Michigan State AFL-CIO announced Tuesday.
In its place, the union federation will host an expanded
LaborFest celebration this year at Detroit’s Ford Field.
The festival will take place Sept. 13, almost two weeks
after Labor Day and the day before the contract expires
between the UAW and Detroit’s automakers.

"The building trades will still have a parade on
Trumbull and Michigan, but the parade as you know it
down Woodward has been canceled and changed to here,"
Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan State AFL-CIO,
said at a news conference at the stadium.
For the past six years, the Labor Day parade marched to
a labor festival held somewhere near or in downtown,
such as the Wayne State University campus or the parking
lot of Comerica Park.

But the Michigan State AFL-CIO decided to hold a daylong
LaborFest, without the parade, to draw participants more
into union political causes.
This year’s LaborFest will continue to boast a variety
of family-friendly activities, such as a marching band
competition, three musical stages, classic car displays,
games for children and an on-field "NFL experience."
This will include simulated passing, tackling and goal
line dives, as well as a 100-yard dash for union
staffers.

Food and beverages, including beer, will be served.
In between the fun and games, though, the unions will
point out what they see as the failures of the North
American Free Trade Agreement and will rally for a
universal health care system and labor law reform.
Attendees also will be able to sign the world’s largest
postcard protesting free trade policies. "We’ll be
agitating," Gaffney said.

A stage located on the field level will be dedicated to
a political program that will include speeches from
union leaders and community allies, such as the Michigan
Environmental Council. It also is likely to include
several presidential candidates who have inquired about
the event, Gaffney said.
Detroit’s Labor Day parade has long been a draw for
national candidates.

For five consecutive presidential elections, from Harry
Truman in 1948 to Lyndon Johnson in 1964, it was
traditional for the Democratic candidate to launch his
fall campaign at a union rally in Cadillac Square on
Labor Day.

By the late 1960s, the AFL-CIO’s traditional Labor Day
parade was canceled because of declining crowds. The
AFL-CIO revived it in 1981, and in 1997, LaborFest was
added as the parade’s end-point celebration.
Over the years, the parade has been a source of pride
for Michigan labor.

But Gaffney said it’s also been a "missed opportunity"
because thousands of union members attend and they are
rarely engaged in serious issues. About 40,000 people
have attended the annual parade in recent years, and a
similar turnout is expected for the festival.
LaborFest will be held from noon until 6 p.m. and the
free event will be open to the general public. A Tigers
game will follow at Comerica Park, and tickets will be
available for $5 to those who attend the labor festival.
More information, such as applications for the band
competition, can be found at www.laborfestdetroit.org.

If the new LaborFest doesn’t go off as planned, Gaffney
said the parade may again make a comeback. As it stands,
the unions have high hopes for the festival.
"We’ll be coming out of LaborFest with a whole new
spirit and revitalization of the Michigan labor
movement," he said.

Copyright © 2003 Detroit Free Press Inc.