CHAMPAIGN — Music, marchers and community pride filled downtown Champaign Monday as locals gathered for the Labor Day parade.
The annual event hosted many floats featuring local unions and marching bands. The parade was followed by a picnic in Neil Street Plaza with a live band and other family activities.
Champaign’s AFL-CIO and Central Labor Council arranged the festivities, said Dave Beck, president of the Central Labor Council.
“It’s important that folks in the community understand that workers are vital to our community and that the work they do is what keeps our community running,” Beck said. “For our members who are part of their labor union, it’s important for them to remember that it’s through working with their labor union that they have rights on the job.”
The Iron Workers Local Union 380, Laborers Local 703 and Illinois Federation of Teachers were also represented at the event.
Members of the Iron Workers union drove a crane down the route and occasionally stopped to prop a 20-foot metal beam on the ground; Workers climbed up the beam, sometimes throwing candy from the top or bending backwards hands-free.
Joe Parkos, a community member who was at the parade to support his son performing in one of the marching bands, said Labor Day is important because it recognizes all of the contributions that unions and workers have made to the U.S.
“During the current temperament of the federal administration, it’s more important than ever for folks like this to be recognized and for the world unions to be recognized,” Parkos said.
Another attendee, Ryan O’Connor, took this celebration as an opportunity to reflect on his own community as a teacher. He said it’s important to remember the sacrifices made on his behalf.
“When we think about some of the problems that we’re dealing with in this nation right now, a lot of those problems are affecting the workers,” O’Connor said. “We just need to remember that it’s Main Street, not Wall Street, that made this country.”
Along the parade route, attendees young and old donned a variety of labor union shirts and hats. This recognition is the most important day of the year for people like Beck, whose father was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
“I knew from a very early age that the only reason that my family had food on the table, the only reason we could go on vacation was because my dad was in a labor union,” Beck said. “For that reason, I have been working in labor unions to get the rights and wages they need to survive.”
Beck said the event has grown every year ever since its inception in the early ‘50s. The Marching Illini is the newest addition to the parade lineup, and this year’s event was the first to include a picnic after the parade.
“This year we’re excited because I’m looking at it now and I see about twice as many people as normally show up,” Beck said, “which is what we’ve always wanted.”