Union members and their families as well as representatives from labour groups, community organizations and municipal politics gathered Monday at Riverside Park to celebrate Labour Day.
“It was a great turnout,” said Terry O’Connor organizer for the Guelph and District Labour Council (GDLC). “We are always dependant on the weather and it has cooperated really well.”
The Labour Day Picnic is a highlight of the year for many.
“I think people look at this as the last weekend of the summer so, we try to put on a big party for them and celebrate the work of labour throughout the entire year,” said O’Connor. “It was a year of struggle but we keep fighting on and people keep showing up at the picnic and we are quite happy about that.”
There were craft tables, face painting and games for the kids and a steady flow of musical performances by local musicians.
Members from the GDLC and event volunteers served up hotdogs, samosas and refreshments to hungry picnickers.
Among the volunteer servers was newly-minted Guelph Green MPP Mike Schreiner.
“I am here to support workers and the labour movement and to serve up a little food to members of our community,” said Schreiner. “Once again this just shows what a caring community Guelph is and what an important role the labour movement plays in making Guelph the kind of community people want to live, work and raise their families in."
Schreiner said he heard a consistent message from the people he spoke to at the picnic.
“Literally everyone that has come and talked to me today has said we’ve got a fight at Queen’s Park to protect public funding of good public services and that is something I will be doing as Guelph’s MPP,” he said.
O’Connor said 2018 was a relatively quiet year for local labour groups but they are bracing for the challenges ahead.
“Locally we didn’t have a lot of labour strife but with Doug Ford in power now we are looking to see some big changes,” said O’Connor. “We are preparing for that to hit us hard.”
Many new and incumbent candidates in the upcoming municipal election came out to meet voters and show their support for local labour groups. O’Connor said the GLDC has re-introduced its 'We Are Guelph' platform to gage candidate support for labour policies.
“We’ve asked candidates to support that platform and then we will publicize that,” said O’Connor. “We did that in 2014 and it was quite successful. Prior to that we would endorse candidates but we found that very tedious and not really a good picture of what the candidate stands for. With our platform, if they support it then they support things like public services and water and things like that.”