Labor Day parade emphasizes ‘workers over billionaires' as thousands march from Copley Square

'While this is the day that the country celebrates your labor, in Boston we celebrate working people every day,' Mayor Michelle Wu told a crowd after the parade, between a flurry of musical performances and fiery addresses by prominent labor leaders. Wu spoke in front of a banner that read 'Workers over Billionaires.' The parade, which for the second straight yearreplaced the customary Labor Day breakfastat the Park Plaza Hotel, brought together organizations representing numerous professions, from teaching to music to carpentry, and various unions either currently or recently embroiled in contract fights. Dozens of workers from Encore Boston Harbor casino, wheremore than 1,300 walked off the job Friday amid stalled contract talks, circled Copley Square Park during the parade, which ran along Dartmouth Street and Commonwealth Avenue before returning to the park. Keenan Green, a staff dining employee at Encore, said the love and support at the parade will help keep worker spirits high in the early days of their strike. 'Everybody's out here supporting everybody,' Green said. 'We've got plenty of energy in us.' Workers at Encore areseeking wage increasesthey say they have long needed to match the livable standard found at many other hotels in the area. 'The only reason Encore exists is because unions backed the building of Encore,' said Laura Moye, an organizer with Local 26 UNITE HERE, representing Encore workers. 'They promised us good union jobs ... and here we are, out on strike, because the five-star casino can't pay workers the same as the Hampton Inn in South Boston.' Encore maintains its wages have outpaced inflation and the casino's revenue, which has slightly declined in recent years. Echoing anger over wealth inequality expressed by many leaders throughout the day, nearby the parade route stood two inflatable balloons depicting a pig and a cat dressed as 19th-century robber barons. As crowds gathered before the march, unionized workers for Mass General Brigham rallied on the grass outside 200 Clarendon St., home of Bain Capital, where billionaire MGB board member John Connaughton chairs the board of the private investment giant. In July,4,000 MGB nurses picketed for seven days in the largest nursing strike in state history, but they returned to work without a settled contract in what isan ongoing dispute. Still, Karen Coughlin, a board member of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said that events like Labor Day 'move us forward in our willpower to get what we deserve and what our workers should have.' She added she feels like the tides of labor organizing are rising amid anger over data centers, AI, and deregulation. 'People are starting to realize [billionaires] are not out for the good of the community and the citizens,' she said. 'This whole movement is so much bigger than Brigham ... It's actually democracy in danger with the oligarchs,' added Katie Murphy, the nurses association president and an intensive care nurse at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Amidst the flurry of pro-union signs in the parade, many carried banners expressing support for incumbent Democrats and get-out-the-vote initiatives. Governor Maura Healey, taking the stage, criticized her Republican gubernatorial challenger, Mike Minogue, who she also branded as an 'out-of-touch ... billionaire,' noting his donations to President Trump, incontinued efforts to frame the governor's race as a referendum on Trump. Minogue, she said, 'can't hide the fact that he supports Trump's agenda to take away workers' rights in his war that's raising the cost of everything.' Healey, who isendorsed by the AFL-CIO, added that voters who care about protecting unionization rights and jobs have 'only one choice in this race.' Minogue, aformer CEO of a medical device company, celebrated Labor Dayon social media, and has promised to grow jobs in the state by slashing red tape and drawing on his experience as a business executive,according to his campaign website, though he lacks major union endorsements. In her speech, Wu also highlighted thestill too-close-to-call state senate primary racebetween her endorsed candidate Daniel Lander, a former aide whom she lauded as a pro-worker advocate, and incumbent Democrat William N. Brownsberger. That race, she said, reminds 'everyone that when we organize, we can send a big message and fight for our futures.' Other politicians, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Representative Ayanna Pressley, and Secretary of State William Galvin also marched in the parade. Labor voices at the event included Chrissy Lynch, president of the AFL-CIO Massachusetts, and Darlene Lombos, president of the Greater Boston Labor Council, which hosts the parade. Also present at the event, for their first time as a recognized bargaining group, was the App Drivers Union, a first-of-its-kind bargaining collectiverepresenting some 70,000 rideshare workers in the state, which was formally recognized after years of organizing in May. They will have their third day of bargaining with corporations like Uber and Lyft later this month, according to Mike Vartabedian, principal officer of the union who also works with the International Association of Machinists. 'Boston is a union town. Let's keep it that way,' added Claude Janvier, an App Driver Union member, in a speech. Bryan Hecht can be reached atbryan.hecht@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram@bhechtjournalism.