(The following article by Sarah Hollander was posted on the Cleveland Plain Dealer website on June 10.)
CLEVELAND — For everyone discouraged by the thinning list of products made in America- let alone made in America by a union member- prepare to mark your calendars.
The AFL-CIO announced Wednesday it will bring its annual Union-Industries Show to Cleveland in May 2006.
The annual trade show features union-made products and services, from Harley-Davidsons and clothing to baked goods and stonemasonry.
“Pretty much everything a union member makes or does will be at the I-X Center,” said Matt Bates, secretary-treasurer of the union’s Label & Service Trades Department.
Bates anticipates more than 300 exhibitors and 275,000 visitors to fill the International Exposition Center over four days-May 5-8.
Presentations at the free show will range from small booths showcasing local companies to huge displays by auto makers and others, he said.
The AFL-CIO considers Cleveland a union-friendly city, said John Ryan, executive secretary of the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, which has worked for years to bring the event here. The show has visited Cleveland only once, in 1949.
“This show is about showing the pride of doing work in this country in this city,” Ryan said.
The Union-Industries Show began in Cincinnati in 1938, a time when ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ labels dominated shelves and racks and nearly a third of U.S. employees, excluding farmers, belonged to a union.
About 13 percent of American employees belong to a union, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And the business climate has changed from spring to winter, with overseas outsourcing of jobs, the loss of well-paid manufacturing jobs, and cheap foreign labor dominating headlines.
Pittsburgh hosted the show in 2003. St. Louis has it this year and Portland, Ore. in 2005.
Plain Dealer reporter Alison Grant contributed to this story.