Labor Day AFL-CIO Parade Comes To Parma Heights During Shared Historic Year
The City of Parma Heights kicks off the Labor Day weekend in a big way this year as it hosts the North Shore Federation of Labor AFL-CIO Labor Parade on Saturday, September 3 at 10:00 a.m. We are honored to have the opportunity to host the parade in our community for the first time in the city’s history during this, our Centennial year. The labor federation is also celebrating milestone birthdays in 2011. The Federation of Organized Trades & Labor Unions, now known as the American Federation of Labor, was formed in 1881, making this the 130th year since its founding. The Cleveland Federation of Labor, now known as the North Coast AFL-CIO, was issued a charter in 1887, making this its 125th Anniversary.
The parade will step off at the corner of Pearl and Snow Roads and head south on Pearl to the Greenbrier Commons. Joining me on the reviewing stand will be Harriet Applegate, Executive Secretary of the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor and Loree Soggs, Executive Secretary of the Cleveland Building Construction Trades Council. Parade Grand Marshals are U. S. Representatives Betty Sutton, Dennis Kucinich and Marcia Fudge. As in the past, unions affiliated with the Cleveland Building Trades Council are expected to make up about half of the event.
The North Shore Federation of Labor AFL-CIO has chosen “We Are One Against Issue 2” as the theme for the Parma Heights parade and picnic. The union is expecting a strong turnout from teachers, firefighters, police and other public employees who would be directly affected by Senate Bill 5, on the ballot as Issue 2. Organized labor is encouraging voters to vote “no” on Issue 2, legislation that seeks to severely limit collective bargaining rights for public employees in Ohio.
Parade watchers and participants are invited to a post-parade picnic in the Greenbrier Commons.
According to the North Coast AFL-CIO, the Labor Day Parade is held in a different blue-collar suburb each year. Parma Heights co-hosted the parade with Parma and Seven Hills in 1992, the first year the parade left its traditional venue in downtown Cleveland, but the route did not go through Parma Heights.