MINNEAPOLIS — Driving a Ford truck? Union workers built it. Tooling about on a Harley Davidson motorcycle? Union labor there, too. That bowl of Froot Loops you ate this morning? Union made.
The workers who made those products and many more will be out in force this weekend — and displaying their wares — at the 2002 AFL-CIO Union Industries Show in Minneapolis, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
The national show, making its first appearance in the Twin Cities since 1991, features merchandise giveaways totaling more than $250,000. That includes raffles for three cars and a 2002 Harley.
The show, which includes more than 300 exhibitors, is free. It starts at noon today at the Minneapolis Convention Center and runs through Monday.
Organized labor and unionized businesses have been holding an annual trade show since 1938. The primary goal: Showcase goods and services produced by union workers — who number more than 400,000 in Minnesota alone — as well as the nature of union labor itself.
For instance, union bricklayers will be doing masonry this weekend, while union culinary workers will be decorating cakes. Several exhibits allow for participation. Unions representing heavy-equipment operators and train engineers will have simulators that respectively put visitors in the driver’s seat of a big crane and a locomotive.
This week, the convention floor has been buzzing with union workers setting up exhibits that include everything from cross-sections of V8-engines to a Minneapolis Fire Department truck.
Big signs emblazoned with union acronyms were everywhere: IAM (machinists); PACE (paper, chemical and energy workers); IATSE (theatrical, stage and entertainment industry workers) — just to name a few.
The United Auto Workers union will have the biggest presence. Each of the big three carmakers — General Motors, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler — has its own exhibit. Each will give away one vehicle: a Pontiac Grand Am, Ford Focus and Chrysler Sebring.
Other union booths will feature hourly raffles of free stuff.
The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers union will give away bags filled with $50 worth of food: boxes of Wheaties; packages of Nutter Butter cookies; bags of sugar, etc. The goodies are courtesy of General Mills, Kellogg and other food companies.
The United Food and Commercial Workers will have plenty of meat to give away during the weekend — about $50,000 worth of beef and pork, courtesy of Cub Foods.
Sealy mattresses, Amana refrigerators and a John Deere lawn tractor also will be given away.
The show runs until 7 tonight and daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday through Monday.