Volunteers spend Labor Day giving back

By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com

For many hard-working Americans, the Labor Day holiday is a three-day-weekend filled with cookouts, cold beverages, splashing in the pool, nature walking, hiking, fishing or camping and maybe taking in a fireworks display.
But for a large group of union workers and other workers from various sectors, Labor Day weekend 2020 was about using the strength of their backs and the sweat on their brow to make a difference in Greater Pittsburgh communities.
With the cancellation of Pittsburgh’s Labor Day Parade as a result of coronavirus pandemic restrictions, local union members and other members of the Allegheny County Labor Council decided to participate in a weekend of service, including an outdoor workday in Renziehausen Park in McKeesport.
The ACLC said the service projects were meant to “honor frontline workers and highlight organized labor’s commitment to serve our communities and take care of those in need.”
Union workers on Friday held a food distribution at PPG Paints Arena in partnership with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, on Sunday beautified a veterans memorial in Crafton Heights and on Monday participated in a Labor Day at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Oakland.
“While we can’t have our usual Labor Day celebrations this year, we are embracing this opportunity to honor the frontline workers who are helping us get through this pandemic and to show what organized labor is all about: serving our communities and taking care of people in need,” ACLC President Darrin Kelly said.

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Submitted
IUOE Local 95 member Larry Bridges of McKeesport (left) poses for a picture with his granddaughter Jourdin Allen and state Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, during the weekend service project at Renzie Park.