NEGAUNEE, Mich. (WZMQ) – After years of being held in Ishpeming, Marquette County’s Labor Day parade was moved to Negaunee for this year. Monday’s Labor Day parade had unions like Sheet Metal Local 7 and Local 906, all representing and honoring those who work in the labor force.
“Labor Day started because of the unions we wanted a 40-hour work week and 8-hour work day so Labor Day as a result of the work that the labor unions from the beginning put in to get us to that point,” commented Local 906 Apprentice Engineer John Dubuis.
Labor Day honors those labor workers who are at the job when it’s hot, cold, stormy, and snowy. In the UP, working in the mines became a popular, yet deadly avenue of labor and this day helps to recognize those who are still working in similar conditions. “Even locally if you look into the history of the mines you’ll see a lot of that where the mine owners really wanted to push working nonstop all the time in horrible conditions”
According to the CDC, last year there were around 29 occupational mining fatalities and workers say because of unions, those numbers haven’t gone above 100 since the 90s. “I think that nowadays we want that 40-hour week that home life to where you’re not working all the time and you have worker rights. So at the end of the day, you can have a nice long life and nice retirement at the end of it,” continued Dubuis
The festivities throughout the day give workers the chance to reflect on what Labor Day really means to them. “Labor Day means that the unions are working in our country and you see all the workers come out it’s fantastic. If we didn’t have this and all these people coming out that work these jobs nobody knows it,” commented Negaunee Resident, Shirley Koski.
“We’re with the building trades and it’s a big day for us to show out how much of us are out working you don’t see us around a lot we’re building the buildings that people aren’t in,” commented Local 1510 Member Greg Erkkila.
“It’s kind of nice to it’s nice to just take one day a year and look back at kind of the progression that things took to get us to where we are today the people that fought struggle and died along the way to make this happen for us is pretty amazing,” commented Dubuis.
