(The following story by Ted Reed appeared on the Charlotte Observer website on September 4. Ben Lee is Local Chairman and Legislative Representative of BLET Division 166 in Charlotte, N.C.)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte will stage its sixth annual Labor Day parade Monday, as local labor leaders take the chance to honor the 1934 General Textile strike.
“We have to pay tribute and reflect back on the struggles people went through to put us where we are,” said Bill Wise, president of Charlotte Local 1725 of the International Association of Machinists, which will have a float in the parade.
“Hopefully, our kids will be able to reflect back on us on some Labor Day, to reflect on how we weathered the setbacks we face,” said Wise, whose local includes US Airways mechanics.
The parade is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Monday at the corner of Second and Davidson streets. It will follow Second to Tryon Street, then proceed on Tryon to Sixth Street.
Organizers are hoping that any bad weather associated with Hurricane Frances will bypass Charlotte. Rain washed out the 2001 parade, recalled Ben Lee, co-chairman of the parade committee and vice general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
“Given the weather conditions, we may have less people than last year,” he said.
Grand marshal of the parade is Doug Marlette, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and author of “The Bridge,” a novel about the 1934 General Textile strike, which extended from New England to the South.
“It’s the 70th anniversary of the largest strike in the 20th century,” Lee said.
“A lot of people look at it as a failure because a lot of them lost their jobs and were blacklisted, but I think it was a success if it inspires one single trade unionist.”