Labor Day is fast approaching. As many workers and students look forward to a three-day weekend and possibly a barbecue, it is important to remember why this holiday is being celebrated. Namely, it is a day to honor the American labor movement and the contributions it has made throughout America’s history. The Napa/Solano Central Labor Council (NSCLC) will be celebrating with a Labor Day breakfast at Ironworkers Local 378 Hall in Benicia.

NSCLC is a political action group that represents more than 40,000 working men and women in Solano and Napa counties.

“We provide a forum for working men and women from different occupations to come together and share a common vision,” Field Coordinator Justin Bailey said.

For the seventh year in a row, NSCLC will be hosting a Labor Day breakfast to honor the contributions of the labor force over several centuries. According to Jon Riley, executive director of NSCLC, the organization and previously hosted a Labor Day lunch and picnic but decided to move the event back to earlier in the day.

“We felt that breakfast would allow folks to visit some of the other festivities that were going on that day,” he said. “We put on the first one, and every year it gets bigger, badder, better.”

At the breakfast, attendees can enjoy such breakfast foods as pancakes, eggs and sausages and beverages like coffee and orange juice. There will also be keynote speeches from local elected officials, including Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Benicia) and Rep. John Garamendi (D-Fairfield), as well as Assemblymembers Susan Bonilla, Bill Dodd, Jim Frazier and more.

“We’re trying to celebrate all the successes that the labor community has enjoyed over the last 100 years,” he said. “Unions are no more than working people standing together, so we find out what’s going on legislatively and what labor issues are very near and dear to labor leaders’ hearts.”

Being an election year, Riley says NSCLC will be introducing the crowd to the candidates it has endorsed.

The event is family oriented, which means there will be activities and entertainment for children, including Kelly the Clown out of Vacaville.

Bailey believes the event will be a good chance for attendees to sit back and reflect on the accomplishments of labor activists.

“We hope that people will remember the sacrifices that the members of the labor movement have made throughout history to get us to where we are today in terms of having a vibrant middle class,” he said.

Additionally, he said it is important “we do not forget those lessons and we continue to safeguard our rights as we move forward in the future.”

Riley regards the event as “a way for us to honor all those labor activists that have gone before us, that are working today and educate our future leaders as to why union membership is so important.”

NSCLC’s Labor Day Breakfast will be held from 9 a.m. to noon, Monday, Sept. 5 at Ironworkers Local 378 Hall, located at 3120 Bayshore Road. Tickets are $30 for adults, $5 for children ages 4 through 12, and free for children ages 3 and under as well as out of work union members. There are also sponsorship opportunities available. For more information, call Bailey at 246-9727 or email him at justinforjobsnsclc@gmail.com.

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