Union members celebrate with Labor Day picnic

The picnic was about pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, a pirate ship bounce house and a Velcro wall.

But the conversation was about labor and workers’ rights, with a little campaigning thrown in.

About 500 people were expected for the annual Labor Day Picnic on Monday, sponsored by the Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council. This year it was at Tumwater Historical Park.

The event is to help the community understand that labor isn’t just about representing workers on the job, it’s about the community being helped by having great jobs, said Bob Guenther, president of the council.

“It’s not about breaking business,” he said, “it’s about getting a fair share of the profit.”

Guenther said one of the biggest challenges for the labor movement is to educate young people about advantages union jobs can give them.

“Not everyone is going to go to college,” he said, adding that labor representatives need to go to schools’ occupational programs and make sure students know about the apprenticeship programs available.

“It can be a pathway to a four-year degree,” Guenther said.

One young person at the picnic was North Thurston High School sophomore Mady White. She said she didn’t know much about labor and unions. Her grandmother, Karen White, of Lacey, said, “But she will! She’s going to be a nurse.” Karen White is a member of OPEIU (Office and Professional Employees International Union) Local 8.

By the kids’ area, sisters Jean Edwards and Sandy Newgard were laughing at a boy stuck high on the Velcro wall.

“I really like meeting my co-workers’ families,” Edwards, an employee at Labor and Industries, said.

Among current labor issues is an attempt to unionize faculty at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey. Representatives of the adjunct faculty were at a table in front of the picnic area, including Blaine Snow, who teaches English as a second language.

Saint Martin’s is asking the National Labor Relations Board for a stay in the certification of a recent unionization vote by members of its nontenured faculty, based on the nature of a religious institution.

Also lining the entrance to the picnic was an array of political signs. Candidates stopped in throughout the day.

Guenther is optimistic about the future of labor.

“I think we have a good chance to take back the U.S. Senate,” he said, adding he thinks Hillary Clinton — whom he called a friend of labor — will win the presidential election in November.

This story was originally published September 5, 2016 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Union members celebrate with Labor Day picnic."