Labor Day Parade Honors Frontline Workers, Their Families In South Philly
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The weather was perfect Monday for a Labor Day parade. The parade honored frontline workers and their families who worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic.
The parade started at South Columbus Boulevard and Washington Avenue and traveled north to the Great Plaza at Penn's Landing. It was all in an effort to show overwhelming appreciation.
It was organized by the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO. The group represents over 150,000 union members in the public sector, private sector, hospitality and service industry, and building and construction trades.
Eiding, the union's president, said unionizing is becoming more common across different industries.
This parade is a way to show public appreciation across the tri-state.
"To think about what has held our city together, it is the city workers picking up the trash, it is the workers in our health centers, it is the city workers on the front lines of public safety. While most of our city could limit the people that we were interacting with, our frontline workers, our union employees had to make sure our city was working," Philadelphia City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart said.
As the country looks ahead toward the eventual end of the pandemic, the future of the workforce may be different than what it was before COVID.
"Those folks wanna go back to work. They've had a career for 15 to 20 years. They need the unemployment until they go back to work. They're not staying on it because they wanna be on it," Eiding said.
A family fest at Penn's Landing followed the parade.
