PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia union members brought a fighting spirit to this year’s annual Labor Day parade in South Philadelphia.
The last few Labor Day parades celebrated uncommon progress for unions under the Biden administration. This year’s parade lamented an abrupt turnaround under President Donald Trump.
“This year, it has been nothing but one attack after another,” said Letter Carriers Union President Brian Renfroe.
He has been running defense on moves to privatize the postal service and strip members of retirement benefits and collective bargaining rights. He warned that the effort to undermine unions is unlikely to stop with federal workers, and said they must recommit themselves “to digging in and fighting like [they’ve] never fought before.”
Parade veterans said turnout was larger than normal this year, with Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME, joining several national labor figures who marched with some 4,000 rank-and-file members.
State Senator Sharif Street said workers were responding to the challenge with determination.
“Now we have a fight. Sometimes it takes a fight to bring us together,” Street said.
SEPTA workers show out
Also in attendance were members of Transport Workers Union Local 234, who gathered to celebrate and commiserate.
Since the first round of SEPTA service cuts went into effect more than a week ago, frustrated riders have directed their anger at bus driver Vivian Williams.
“Curse, threaten. They’re doing all that. They’re making us to blame instead of the state,” Williams said.
Williams says she empathizes with her riders, especially the seniors.
“Something that would take them like an hour would take them almost three hours to get to where they’ve got to go. It’s really sad to watch them go through that.”
Khary Gray, a SEPTA bus driver for 25 years, says with Local 234’s contract expiring in two months, the union faces plenty of challenges after the holiday.
“Let’s get this contract done. Let’s continue to fight for funding. Let’s continue to fight for the ridership. Let’s continue to fight for the membership. And let’s continue to fight for the communities that we serve.”
On Friday, a Philadelphia judge ordered SEPTA to stop any further service cuts, including a steep fare hike that was set to take effect on Sept. 1.