SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Community members gathered at Covell Lake Sunday afternoon for a Labor Day picnic that honored the 90th anniversary of an important piece of Sioux Falls history.
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Hosted by the South Dakota Regional Labor Federation, the event included a free barbeque, and speakers opened up discussion about unions and the working class. Speakers informed the public on how unions function and how to join or organize one.
“Unions are the functional, legal basis in which workers can organize and hold grievances that can be respected in a court of law. It’s leverage; it’s power; and we need them now more than ever,” Sioux Falls AFL-CIO Labor Board member and AFSCME representative Jordan Deffenbaugh said at the event.
Speakers also commemorated the Sioux Falls union workers who stood up for workers rights in the “Bloody Friday” strike of 1935 that happened at the John Morrell & Co. meat-packing plant, where Smithfield Foods stands today.
“They sacrificed so much, for years. In the modern day, we couldn’t conceive of the level of discomfort that these people put themselves in to get those extra couple cents an hour,” Deffenbaugh said…