For Immediate Release

August 11, 2022

Contact: kwhalen@nycclc.org, 347-453-7131

On Saturday, September 10th, the New York City Labor Day Parade and March will return to Fifth Avenue for the first time since 2019. Tens of thousands of workers representing more than 200 unions and constituency groups will come together in a powerful show of labor solidarity on the 140th Anniversary of the first Labor Day parade in the United States, when more than 10,000 workers marched from New York City Hall to Union Square in 1882.

This year, the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO is honored to be led by Parade Grand Marshal U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh and Parade Chairs AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond and NYS Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon, along with our Executive Council.

The Parade will kick off at 10am at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street, marching uptown to the NYC CLC Reviewing Stand at 64th Street.

The theme of this year’s parade is Workers Leading, Workers Rising, reflecting the enormous surge in labor activism and organizing that is taking place across the nation and across all sectors of the workforce, leading to historic worker victories and an increase in worker power. We are pleased that we’ll be joined on Fifth Avenue by many of these newly organized workers.

We will also be honored to be joined by thousands of the essential workers who risked their own safety and health to get New York City through the pandemic, and who continue to work tirelessly for their fellow New Yorkers as we emerge from that crisis. These workers have also organized, using their collective voices over the past three years to secure enhanced safety measures, paid sick time, hazard pay, and negotiate furloughs or work-sharing structures in order to preserve jobs.

“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to empowering workers to organize and collectively bargain and, at the Department of Labor, we are playing a leading role in mobilizing the federal government’s efforts to protect and advance the rights of America’s workers,” said U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. “This Labor Day, I’m thrilled to be Grand Marshal of the New York City Labor Day Parade and look forward to honoring the workers who carried our nation through a pandemic.”

"One hundred forty years after the first New York City Labor Day parade, we will march by the thousands once again to celebrate not just the union champions who came before us, but the working people across this country who are standing up, taking risks and fighting to organize their workplaces," said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond. "This holiday is brought to you by the labor movement, and after the events of the last several years, it will be an honor to walk alongside the countless workers who have sacrificed so much to move our country forward."

“Being named co-chair of the New York City Labor Day Parade and March is one the proudest moments of my career,” said New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon. “I am so honored to walk alongside my brothers and sisters in celebration of the unified voice that the labor movement continues to give New Yorkers in the workplace.”

“The New York City Central Labor Council is thrilled to bring the nation’s oldest and largest Labor Day Parade back to Fifth Avenue, where tens of thousands of New York’s working men and women will gather in a celebration of solidarity and pride,” said NYC CLC President Vincent Alvarez. “We are honored to be led by Secretary Walsh, Secretary-Treasurer Redmond, and Commissioner Reardon, three lifelong labor leaders whose commitment to the cause of working people has improved the lives of millions of working families across our state and our nation.”

The New York City Central Labor Council (NYC CLC) is a non-profit labor membership organization devoted to supporting, advancing and advocating for the working people of New York City. As the nation's largest regional labor federation, the NYC CLC brings together 300 local unions from every trade, occupation, public and private sector of the New York economy. We represent 1.3 million workers, including teachers, truck drivers, operating engineers, nurses, construction workers, electricians, firefighters, retail workers, janitors, train operators, bakers, and many more who are the backbone of today’s workforce.

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