Celebrating Workers & Community: Voice Of The Township
Our office will be closed in honor of Labor Day on Monday, September 1st. Instead of being in our home base at 320 E Superior we will be down the block at the Labor Day Picnic in Headwaters Park. The Wayne Township Trustee Office has been attending the annual picnic with our information booth for at least the last twenty years, and this year will be no different. The “Solidarity Event,” which is volunteer-organized, is hosted by Northeast Indiana AFL-CIO and labor partners. WTTO is proud to consider ourselves one of those partners.
Wayne Township attends many events throughout the year where we bring our pictures and literature to inform and educate the public about what we do and what resources are available here at the Wayne Township Trustee Office. Each year, we wrap up the summer celebration season at the Labor Day Picnic. This is always a big event drawing crowds in the thousands, and we love setting up our booth there as we get to see so many familiar faces.
This year’s theme of the event is “It’s Better in a Union: Fighting for Freedom, Fairness and Security.” The labor movement was born from the idea of making life fairer for the workers who put so much of their energy into producing for an ever-growing economy while often making barely enough money to feed their families. Before organized labor, “If you were a factory worker in the 1880s, you were probably toiling away at your job for an average of 60 hours a week, and it wasn’t unheard of for textile laborers in New York to make only 75 cents a day, which was a paltry sum, even for the time. To bring attention to these unfair working conditions, labor organizers coordinated the first Labor Day parade on Tuesday, September 5, 1882.” (from “Mental Floss”)
The labor movement grew from there, and by 1894, the year that then-President Grover Cleveland declared the first Monday in September a national holiday throughout the United States, more than half of the states had already been celebrating the labor movement in recognition of the worth of organized labor.
Here at Wayne Township, we are very much for people having good jobs that provide them with a livable income, fulfillment, and an opportunity to grow in a career. Two of our programs are aimed directly toward these goals. One is our Employment Program, which links employers with openings for our job-seeking clients. The second is our Workfare Program, which gives selected organizations and client partners the chance to “try out” an employment position. We are also particularly proud of our relationship with labor groups that offer apprenticeships for workers to learn and experience skilled labor jobs.
We hope you can drop in at the picnic and stop at our booth to learn more about what the Wayne Township Trustee Office is all about. Trustee Austin Knox will be there, at the booth and mingling with the many attendees.
Here is some information from their website:
- Organized labor’s free annual Labor Day picnic is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday in Headwaters Park in downtown Fort Wayne.
- The event celebrates all working people, and union members and their families are invited. Organizers say all friends of working people are also welcome.
- Volunteers will distribute free chili, hot dogs, ethnic foods, pop, water and beer. Bingo will be played throughout the day. Rides, face painting and the Headwaters Park splash pad will be available for the children.”
- The event is fully accessible, meeting all ADA standards.
Hope to see you there!
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