The speeches at the annual Labor Day celebration in South Philadelphia on Monday had a noticeably different tone than in the past few years.

The parade and festival hosted by the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO were as lively as ever, with thousands of unionized workers from around the region marching in matching T-shirts along Washington Avenue, accompanied by ear-splitting drumlines and a host of local elected officials.

A drumline marched and performed in the AFL-CIO Labor Day parade on Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia. Sept. 1, 2025. (Meir Rinde/WHYY)

But two years after Joe Biden became the first sitting president to attend the event, and spoke about “celebrating jobs” — a moment when one local union leader declared it was a “boom time” for organizing — speakers this year str

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