FORT WAYNE – Thousands gathered at Headwaters Park on Monday afternoon for an annual free Labor Day picnic to celebrate the working class and show respect to union members across northeast Indiana.

The picnic is not only for union members. Anyone can attend.

Since the picnic moved downtown to a more central location three years ago, attendance has gradually climbed, said Tom Lewandowski, president of the AFL-CIO’s Northeast Indiana Central Labor Council.

Turnout was expected to surpass the estimated 6,000 to 7,000 people who attended last year’s picnic.

The picnic offers free food, including hot dogs, chili, ice cream and cuisine native to Mexico and Burma, Lewandowski said. Refreshments, including beer, were also served.

Kendra Cowan came to the picnic with her husband, a BF Goodrich employee, and their three children. As she waited in line with the children to have their faces painted, Cowan said the family-friendly activities are the biggest draw.

“We come every year and I really like it,” she said.

There was also a bounce house, balloons and children’s rides. Adults and children played bingo, and in between the number-calling, music was orchestrated by a sound team.

The first Labor Day celebration in northeast Indiana was in 1889, five years before it became a national holiday. The local picnic celebration has been an annual event for about 30 years, Lewandowski said.

“This is just people getting together … and honoring and respecting each other,” he said.

Volunteers hosted booths with union information, served food and called bingo numbers. Mark Crouch, a volunteer with the Unemployed and Anxiously Employed Workers Initiative, handed out surveys. The surveys are meant to gain a better understanding of the challenges facing unemployed workers and possibly to gain further bargaining power with companies as a result, Crouch said.

Crouch said Monday afternoon more than 170 people had completed the survey.

On the same day meant to be a celebration of the working class, many of those same people shared heartbreaking stories, he said. Among them, job losses, broken relationships, lost homes and repossessed cars.

“Some of the unemployed have had a horrible time when it comes to unemployment” benefits, Crouch said. “It’s about helping them fight for what they have a right to receive.”

Chris Saylor, of Fort Wayne, came to the picnic with her daughter and some friends.

She first started attending about 14 years ago with her father, a UAW member.

“It’s a good cause,” Saylor said, adding that she comes to socialize at the event.

“You get to see people you didn’t realize are in the union.”

The picnic has dozens of donors each year, including a number of unions. Among those union members are teachers, steelworkers, autoworkers, carpenters, plumbers, food workers and rail workers.

“Each year more people want to be a part of it, as it grows,” Lewandoski said, adding that he estimated the picnic had at least 100 volunteers this year.

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