Chicago’s labor movement legacy honored at Pullman Labor Day Parade

CHICAGO (WGN) – Throughout history, Chicago has been at the center of the American Labor Movement.

On Saturday, union members celebrated their rich legacies on the Far South Side in Pullman.

Saturday’s Labor Day Parade celebrated unions from across all industries, from the service industry, teachers, nurses, plumbers to brick layers.

“Chicago is a town of working class folks. It’s the hometown of the American Labor Movement,” President of the Chicago Federation of Labor Bob Reiter said.

Union workers and their families proudly gathered in the heart of Pullman where they recognized their camaraderie and collective power during the parade.

“We’ve been a carpentry family for a long time, so we’re excited to be here all the time supporting them,” parade attendee Daisy Chavez said.

The festivities traveled south down Cottage Grove and through the historic Pullman neighborhood, where the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum is located.

“This is the 100-year anniversary of the brotherhood of sleeping car porters and maids, which was America’s first and only Black labor union, to receive a charter under the American Federation of Labor,” Dr. David Peterson, president of the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum, said.

While the fight for higher pay and better benefits persists throughout many sector, people representing Plumbers Local 130 said days like Saturday are meant to honor the men and women who paved the way.

“We’re not celebrating what we have today, we’re celebrating the people who brought us here from yesterday,” Patrick McCarthy of Plumbers Local 130 said. “There’s a lot of people that put a lot of effort, gave their lives to give us a five-day work week. That’s what Labor Day means to me.”

After the parade, the celebration continued. A festival honoring the life of Edward Sadlowski, a former union activist, was held.

“Chicago is so lucky to have such a diverse labor movement, you know, not only in the things that we do where we represent workers in the workplace, but also in the people who are members of the labor movement,” Reiter said.