Published: September 07, 2009 11:39 pm         

Trying times for labor: Danny Glover walks with unions during annual parade

TERRE HAUTE — Trade policies and health care reform took a temporary back seat to candy, beans and fellowship Monday, as thousands congregated along Wabash Avenue up to Fairbanks Park in a Labor Day celebration.

Brayden Lincoln, 12, proudly showed off his bag full of sugary prizes won from the street where his family stood.

His mother and aunt, Jennifer Lincoln and Amy Nevills, stood on the west side of Fourth Street between Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue as the Sullivan Middle Schooler tabbed up his count.

“We came in memory of his grandpa,” Lincoln said of her and Nevills’ father, James Lincoln Sr. “He was an electrical worker and we used to come and walk in the parade with him,” she said of the 43-year International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers member who died in December.

Meanwhile, firemen in tie-dyed T-shirts, political candidates for office and representatives of local labor unions marched west on Wabash Avenue from 11th Street toward Fairbanks Park as the Terre Haute Labor Day Parade began at 11 a.m. Spectators stood by others in strollers and lawn chairs up and down the street.

By noon, the free community ham and bean dinner was under way at Fairbanks Park. Perched up at the top of the band shell’s concrete steps, Hollywood movie star Danny Glover sat, eating a hot dog, enjoying live music while wearing a bright orange Workers United Local 1426 T-shirt with “I Walked The Line in 2009” on back.

Surrounded by dozens of orange-clad Local 1426 members with whom he’d marched in that morning’s parade, as well as on the picket line during the union’s recent strike at Bemis Co., the star of such movies as “The Color Purple,” “Angels in the Outfield” and the “Lethal Weapon” series was just one of the guys.

“The parade was beautiful,” he said without a public relations staffer to be seen. Shaking hands while signing autographs, eating his hot dog and being photographed, Glover just seemed like the most popular kid in school. “It’s great to be here and I’m proud to be here.”

Bruce Raynor, president of Workers United and executive vice-president of SEIU, was one of the afternoon’s speakers onstage, raising applause for the workers of Local 1426 and their recent strike at Bemis Co.

“We gather today as free Americans,” he said, noting that the United States is the wealthiest country on Earth, but that 50 million citizens are without health insurance. “It’s time for a new trade policy in America. It’s time to manufacture the things that we buy.”

Bill Treash, president of the Wabash Valley Central Labor Council representing 26 unions with 16,000 members, introduced Glover, who came down from the crowd to take the microphone.

“What a wonderful moment to come back to Terre Haute,” he said as the crowd chanted “Thank you, Danny! Thank you, Danny!”

“This is our family right here, and we’ve got to keep our family together,” he said, calling the members of Local 1426 his “brothers and sisters.”

Glover, who grew up in a union household, credited Local 1426’s resilience in their struggle with Bemis, noting “we were playing chess and they were playing checkers.”

The working class built America, he said, something people should never forget.

“We are what this country is all about,” he said.

Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.