As the 130th national anniversary of Labor Day approaches, it’s important to remember that the holiday goes beyond a big parade, barbecues and time off work.
Vincent Alvarez, the president of New York City Central Labor Council, is acutely aware of the ways in which Labor Day is more than a holiday. For him, it’s a time to reflect on the perpetual struggle for improved economic conditions.
As leader of the CLC, Alvarez leads the nation’s largest regional labor federation, which includes around 300 local unions from a huge range of trades, industries of the New York economy. The New York City parade, which the CLC organizes, predates the national holiday. The city led the nation by holding the first Labor Day Parade In 1882.
“It’s not just a parade, it’s a march for workers’ rights. And it’s one that we remind people of,” Alvarez told LaborPress. “We ask people to participate and be part of this march in a show of unity and solidarity that working people can stand together for one day from different sectors of the economy and march for those collective rights that we all seek to have in our workplaces.”
For the CLC, it’s an opportunity to gather the hundreds of locals that it represents in a show of force that stretches over hundreds of union floats as they travel up Fifth Avenue through Manhattan, and it provides a platform to spread news of their organizing efforts. The parade route is an opportunity to mix the construction trade unions with the Actor’s Guild and the public sector unions with the private sector.
“So it is a signature event that we do once a year to remind people of that ongoing and constant struggle that we’ve been fighting for in this city for 140 plus years,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez himself had close to two decades of experience as a rank-and-file union member before he became a legislative advocate and labor leader. Before he began his work with the CLC, Alvarez started his career with IBEW Local 3 in Flushing in 1990. He was doing shift work while helping with political campaigns and negotiating committees during this period.
“I’m still a member of that union today,” he said.
Shortly after he began working at the CLC, he jumped in the 2008 campaign to help elect President Obama. From 2007-2009, he worked as the Assistant to the Executive Director and then Chief of Staff. The council also gets very active in races for City Council and other local officials as well as city budget fights and local bills for workers.
“And that work of the Central Labor Council continues today, whether it be in the political legislative field or in supporting our affiliates and their organizing efforts and mobilization efforts for the different campaigns that they’re involved in,” Alvarez said.
At the end of what was known as “hot labor summer” last year, where over 70,000-plus workers went on strike in the city, the tone of the Labor Day march was passionate. Alvarez said that this year, he wants workers across different sectors to continue building on that momentum.
“We have to continue to make sure that as we’re negotiating contracts, as well as organizing in newer industries, that we’re using the strength and we’re building off of the strength and the success that we had last year to try to improve on and, and secure gains for working people,” he said.
In keeping with that message, the CLC named the theme of the parade this year as “All workers, many voices, one fight.”
Its parade marshall is John Murphy, International Representative of the United Association, “who has been focused on working hard to secure strong labor standards in the transition to clean energy,” and its parade chair is Fallon Ager-Norman, regional director of UFCW, who has made sure that workers keep high standards and protections through changes in the retail industry.
Photo cred:NYC CLC
