Parade marchers focus on health care

Monday’s downpour was a trickle in comparison to the great river of union workers, classic… Monday’s downpour was a trickle in comparison to the great river of union workers, classic cars, construction vehicles and marching bands in Pittsburgh’s annual Labor Day parade, one of the largest Labor Day parades in the United States.

Steel workers, postal workers, electricians, municipal employees, painters, machinists and unions representing a smorgasbord of other occupations marched from Mellon Arena to the Pittsburgh Hilton and Towers. As they escorted giant light-bulb floats, PAT buses and even a tiny log cabin down Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh’s workers were cheered on by passers-by and by Parade Grand Marshall and County Controller Dan Onorato. The Allegheny County Labor Council, a branch of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations – commonly known as the AFL-CIO – sponsored the parade.

“This is one of the oldest and most successful parades in the country,” said Tom Flaherty, Pittsburgh city controller and the chairman of the Allegheny County Democratic Party. He described Pittsburgh as a “bastion of unionism,” and added that there have been Labor Day parades in Pittsburgh for about 100 years, and that the parade usually features between 120 and 130 union units.

Despite the wide variety of occupations held by laborers and supporters at the parade, they were all united by this year’s theme, “Save Our Healthcare.”

“I thought it was an excellent point for the Labor Day parade,” state Rep. Don Walko, D-North Side, said. He explained that the rising cost of health care is not just a problem for large companies employing union workers, but also for small companies who must decide whether or not to offer health care coverage to their employees. He said if the U.S. can afford to fight in Iraq, it can put more money toward health care.

“We have not been meeting the challenge,” he added.

“Health care’s a big one; it’s big with everybody,” said Ray Kaiser, a steel engraver with the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers. “Health care and job security.”

Joe Meyers, a member of the Greater Pennsylvania Carpenters Union, explained that laborers have health care coverage under the union unless they are laid off for a long period of time. Meyers added “I’ve been pretty fortunate to work for a company for three and a half years. There’s a lot of guys sitting right now.”

Tom Hoffman, a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union – which includes the Pitt’s janitors and grounds crew – said that, while Pitt workers have gotten the best contract they’ve had in years, the health care issue they face is far from solved, since their wage increases and their contract with UMPC will only cushion the workers for about a year. At least one Pitt worker marched along with SEIU’s Justice for Janitors Division 29, local branches of health care workers and state employees, and several members of Pitt’s Students in Solidarity.

Hoffman added that the issues Pitt workers handled in their contract, including health care, will resurface when the contract for the SEIU Justice for Janitor’s group Downtown expires on October 31.

“Now, less than five percent of janitors choose family health care because they can’t afford the co-pay,” he said. He added that a janitors’ strike in mid-November is “a definite possibility” should renegotiations be unsuccessful.

Though the union workers used the parade as a forum for presenting union issues, the parade also served to build up union morale and have some good, clean – albeit soggy – fun. Marching bands from high schools in the Pittsburgh area played on cheerfully through the downpour, clowns and Marx Brothers impersonators mingled with passers-by along Fifth Avenue, and little kids chased each other through the crowd and handed out candy, pencils, and fliers. Whole families marched in the parade, including dogs wearing multicolored union T-shirts.

“It’s very much a family affair,” Hoffman said. “One of the key components of our campaign Downtown is reaching out to the community.”