<\/p>\n
Labor Day celebrations got underway in downtown Erie Monday morning with the annual Labor Day Parade marching down State Street.<\/p>\n
The parade stepped off shortly after 10 a.m., bringing together several local and regional unions, high school marching bands and community organizations.<\/p>\n
For those taking part, the parade is more than a holiday tradition. It is a reminder of the history of the labor movement and the sacrifices made to improve working conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go back in history, how important this day is, the sacrifices people have made to get the working conditions that we have, we can\u2019t forget about it,\u201d said Brandon Schmitt, a union organizer with Operating Engineers Local 66.<\/p>\n
As the parade moved through downtown Erie, union members also shared messages about the importance of union representation and workplace safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe carry that threshold of all safety for every business, every organization here,\u201d said Matt Price, president of IBEW Local 56. \u201cWe make sure everyone works in a safe manner, safe conditions for everyone, whether you\u2019re union or non-union.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price said unions want to make sure workplace safety remains a priority and that the labor movement continues into the next generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that unions are carried on and the safety is carried on every job, and that\u2019s why we are here,\u201d Price said.<\/p>\n
He said Labor Day also serves as an opportunity to bring younger workers into the labor movement and continue a tradition that has been built over generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to see this many young people here and some of our older members here, but to keep the young people here and keep that tradition moving forward,\u201d Price said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labor Day celebrations got underway in downtown Erie Monday morning with the annual Labor Day Parade marching down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,64683,69740,6554,2934,97548],"class_list":["post-280936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-labor-day","tag-labor-movement","tag-parade","tag-unions","tag-workplace-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}