Quad-Citians filled the streets of downtown East Moline on Labor Day to celebrate working men and women, marvel at the machines they make and drive, and honor the union movement.
But Monday’s event — which drew labor unions and politicians up and down the ticket — also was about advancing a political agenda.
“Today is all about what the working class people do. This is our day,’’ said Howard Spoon, president of the Teamsters Local 371. Representing the Teamsters were truck drivers from almost a half dozen companies who drove their big rigs along the parade route. Among them was an ABF semi that pulled four tractor trailers.
“We’re coming out to show labor is sticking together,” Spoon said, adding that “the political arena is where we all need to focus. We’re all committed to helping elect (Barack) Obama.”
Lining up for the parade to begin, Laborer’s Local 309 was a sea of bright orange as members sported their new Obama/Biden 2008 T-shirts. “We’re just here fighting for the working men and women of America,” said Quintin Waterman, president of the Rock Island local. “We’re confident this election is going to go how we want it to go ... and working men and women will be moving up the food chain.”
Members of AFGE Local 15 and 2119 on the Rock Island Arsenal hoped to raise awareness of the benefits lost by some of the union brotherhood.
“We are fortunate, working for the government, we haven’t lost benefits — health care, pensions and holidays,” Tom Esparza, president of Local 15, said, adding that other unions have not been so lucky. “The union members have come out and are hoping for a change in the future.”
Tom Close, the longtime president of AFSCME Local 2371, which represents municipal workers across the Illinois Quad-Cities, said the most pressing issue for his union is “health care — No. 1.” A longtime employee of Oak Glen Nursing Home in Coal Valley, Ill., Close said many of the facility’s workers have to rely on state aid and food stamps to supplement their incomes. With insurance costs rising every year, he said, “it’s just terrible the people that don’t have health care because they can’t afford it.”
East Moline alderwoman Cheri Bustos, who was riding in the back of a dump truck with fellow city leaders, said taking time out to honor labor is very important in East Moline. “Our roots are in labor. In every truck, ag implement, school bus and dump truck —it all comes back to labor.”
As the trucks, buses, green and yellow John Deere equipment, dump trucks and other heavy equipment barreled down the parade route, spectators were focused on having fun with their families and celebrating labor.
As 9-year-old Moziah Tousseau filled a bag of candy, she said the day was about “trying to get candy and have a good time.” But she also knew it had something to do with “solidarity,” a word she often hears from her grandmother.
“My parents are with the union, so we know Labor Day is very important,’’ said her mother, Octavia Tousseau, of Moline. “The union paid for my first two years of college.”
As the marching bands and parade walkers passed by, it was a chance for homecomings and reuniting as neighbors spotted friends, family members and acquaintances.
Mike Hughes, who was with his wife Angela and children, Julia, 8, and Joshua, 3, beamed proudly as a classic 1963 Cadillac convertible passed.
“I’ve done a lot of restoration work on that,” said Hughes, the owner of Mike’s Automotive in downtown East Moline. But he could not take credit for the oversized patriotic “ ‘’08 Obama” lettering along the side of the car.
Wearing a foam hammer visors that she got in the parade, Julia Hughes guessed her candy bag to weigh about 5 pounds. “And there’s still a lot more out there,” she said of the candy-littered street.
United Way of the Quad-Cities even distributed hard-bound children’s books. “I’d rather he take one of these home than candy,” Nancy Velacquez said of her 2-year-old son, Ervey, who clutched his new book tightly. “He was very excited to get a book.”
Just 8 months old, twins Halie and Abigayle Hicks were too little for chasing candy, but they were enjoying their first parade under the shade of a small tree — pint-sized American flags in their tiny hands.
“I like that the people walking in the parade are people like us,’’ their mother, Ashley Reisenbigler, of East Moline, said, adding that her fiance, John Hicks, works at Tyson Foods. “I like that the people who work hard for a living are being honored.”
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