Labor Day Parade Marches Up 5th Ave, Not Wholly United Politicians in Tow

Thousands of marchers and around that many spectators thronged to 5th Avenue from 44th to 64th streets Saturday September 7 for the annual New York City Labor Day Parade. If attendance was relatively sparse, passions—and intrigue—were high and, as a whole, this year’s event, organized by the NYC Central Labor Council, was very much a good news, bad news proposition.

Perhaps the best news of all: nobody attending the parade was shot, stabbed or—as far as is known—assaulted. This placidity stands in contrast to the massive West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn which took place on the Labor Day Monday, September 2.

At that event, a still-at-large gunman—described as a male in his twenties wearing a brown, paint-stained shirt and a black bandana— fired into the crowd at Eastern Parkway and Franklin Avenue, wounding four bystanders and killing one, 25-year-old Denzel Chan. Cops said the shooting was gang-related and that the shooter’s intended target, a 16-year-year-old boy, was among the wounded, taking a bullet to the arm.

Police, who also made 13 gun busts along the route, called the West Indian Day Parade a success.

Said NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey: “History also shows that NYPD and the community have drastically reduced violence at this event.”

Said ex-cop Mayor Adams: “Was there anything that we could do? How do you stop a nut from taking a gun [and] shooting into a crowd?”

While Adams’ query might best be answered by those who both decry gun violence while failing to support, or even acknowledge, cops efforts at getting guns off the streets, Hizzoner’s police department would soon face further scrutiny when, on September 5, the homes of NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban; former cop and current Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks; and former cop and current Mayoral advisor Timothy Pearson were among Adams’ intimates whose homes were raided by the FBI. (First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and her partner, Schools Chancellor David Banks, also had their home raided as did a third Banks brother, Terrence)

All the current and former cops, as well as David Banks, a former public school teacher, were union members.

“There Is Power in a Union” is the title of a song written by IWW labor activist, Joe Hill, in 1913. Later, it was borrowed by the acclaimed historian Philip Dray as the title of his 2011 book on, as his subtitle put it, “The Epic Story of Labor in America.”

But just how strong is union power in 2024?

Strong enough that a scandal-singed Mayor to still attended the Labor Day Parade but not quite strong enough that he was cheered by the public or embraced by his fellow pols.

To the contrary, Hizzoner was both heckled—which isn’t unusual for any political leader at a parade—and kept at such a distance from the other Democratic elected officials in attendance, a sign of how radioactive Adams had suddenly become.

The Mayor has been through this before, however.

On November 6, 2023, the FBI seized Adams phones and an iPad—just days before that year’s Veteran’s Day Parade—as part of an unnamed ongoing investigation. Speculation over the raid’s purpose ranged from campaign finance violations (the Brooklyn home of an Adams fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, had been previously raided the FBI) to Executive Branch vengeance for Adams’ having criticized the Biden administration’s anarchic border policy, which was already costing the city hundreds of million dollars to shelter migrants—and with no federal assistance, or even sympathy, forthcoming.

Yet Hizzoner marched on, and the investigation—perhaps having to do with Turkey—faded into the background, while migrant costs spiraled into the billions.

Whether Adams himself is a target in the latest raids is unclear. Lisa Zornberg, chief counsel to Mayor Adams said in a statement on Sept. 5, “Investigators have not indicated to us the mayor or his staff are targets of any investigation.”

And so, the Mayor marched on, wearing at the Labor Day Parade a ball cap emblazed LOVE and flanked by two matching Polo shirt men from his security detail, smiled, waved and acted unfazed. If he was bothered or distracted by the ongoing probes, it was not showing.

Meanwhile, ahead of Hizzoner, marched Democratic brethren including Sen. Charles Schumer; Gov. Kathy Hochul; Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine; Queens Borough President Donovan Richards; NYS Attorney General Letitia James in a “1973” sweatshirt (a tribute, perhaps, to the Knicks last championship season?); Comptroller Brad Lander and others.

The Grand Marshal of this year’s parade was John J. Murphy of the United Association of Plumber and Pipefitters. A fourth-generation union plumber, Murphy was born in the Bronx and raised in Yonkers, Murphy represents 13 plumbing, pipefitting, welding, steam fitting and sprinkler fitting local unions with more than 24,000 members.

The theme of this year’s parade was “All Workers, Many Voices, One Fight.” Among the dozens of participating groups were the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council; Communication Workers of America Local 1180; New York City Stagehands; Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU); Millwrights and Machinery Erectors Local 740; Elevator Constructors Local 1; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3, who had brought along their own handsomely blue-kilt-clad bagpipes and drum marching band with them.

Representing the unionized members of the Fourth Estate was the NewsGuild, including its impassioned President Susan DeCarava, with editorial staff of the long-time teetering—yet still important— tabloid, the Daily News prominent behind the banners. The News dropped out of the union after decades without a contract under former owner Mort Zuckerman but voted to rejoin the union when cost cutting hedge fund Alden Global took over and sliced its newsroom numbers in half.