• Pittsburgh’s Labor Day parade canceled over COVID-19 concerns for second year in a row,
For the second straight year, Pittsburgh’s big Labor Day parade — the largest in the U.S. — has been canceled.
Labor leaders cited rising COVID-19 cases as the reason for the cancellation. The parade was supposed to be held Sept. 6.
“We’ve always stated the safety of men and women, our members, as well as the public, will be our No. 1 commitment,” said Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council, in announcing the cancellation early Wednesday afternoon.
Mr. Kelly, surrounded by labor council members and local politicians, said in a news conference that the union plans to hold a “weekend of service,” as it did when it canceled last year’s parade.
That weekend of service will start Sept. 3, Mr. Kelly said, with a blood drive at PPG Paints Arena in partnership with the American Red Cross and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“This area is suffering from a blood shortage, just like the rest of the country,” Mr. Kelly said, adding that the union also plans to do park cleanups and “monument beautification” again.
Mr. Kelly said canceling the parade was the right decision but also should serve as a warning of the continuing severity of the virus. Allegheny County reported more than 300 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, and recently moved into the high community transmission rate as designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This should be evident of where we are going if we do not take this seriously,” Mr. Kelly said of the pandemic.
Asked whether it was possible President Joe Biden would have potentially visited the now-canceled parade — like he’s done numerous times in the past — Mr. Kelly replied, “I’d be lying to you if I said that Pittsburgh wasn’t one of the final selections.” Mr. Biden marched in the parade twice as vice president and again in 2018.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald applauded the council’s decision to cancel the parade. He noted that it wasn’t just the parade that organizers had to worry about, but also a number of indoor events and celebrations that coincide with it.
“As much as this is a great, great tradition and we’re going to miss it, I do think it’s the responsible thing to do,” Mr. Fitzgerald said, noting that many children under 12, who are not yet eligible for the vaccine, would be in attendance.
Mr. Kelly said he didn’t know the percentage of members in his union who are vaccinated, but insisted labor leaders have been committed from the start to pushing the vaccine to maintain a healthy workforce.
Mr. Kelly added that the council wants to be part of the effort to turn the tide again on COVID-19.
“We are doing our part to protect people and help put an end to this pandemic so that we can get back to all the things we’ve missed over the past year and a half,” Mr. Kelly said, “and we ask that everybody does the same.”
According to a local SEIU unit chair, the theme of the parade was supposed to be “Respect Us, Protect Us, Pay Us” — meant to serve as a reminder that their members worked through the pandemic in essential jobs to serve the public.