ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – On Monday, unions gathered in Escanaba for the annual Delta County Trades & Labor parade.
Due to construction in the downtown, this year’s parade started at Ludington Park and concluded at the Municipal Dock. Carpenters, electrical workers, teachers, pipefitters, and other laborers represented their unions, with some even passing out examples of their work to paradegoers.
Brad Reed, business representative for Carpenters and Millwrights Local 1510, says public displays like parades are important reminders of the value unions provide to their communities.
“The millwrights specifically and the industrial labor—maintaining the mines and the paper mill and all the industry that’s going in the Upper Peninsula—is really important,” he said. “It really helps to keep those wages up, as well as keeping the young people here in the Upper Peninsula.”
