Unions hit hard try to enjoy Zion parade
By Judy Masterson jmasterson@stmedianetwork.com September 5, 2011 8:36PM
A group of children wave American flags during the Zion Jubilee Days Parade. | Josh Peckler~ For Sun-Times Media
It has finally happened. The Angel Drill Team that beginning in 1967 gave young girls new opportunities and helped them grow into responsible young women, is history. Nearly 100 past and present members of the Angel and Bunny drill teams took part in the group’s final performance Monday during the Jubilee Days Festival parade.
Crisp in their dress white and blue sailor uniforms and white boots, Angels Kentoriae Wilson, 18 and Ashley Henry, 15, recited Navy and officer ranks on the command of retiring Angel founder Chief Nathaniel Hamilton.
The Angels were so much more than rifles tossed in the air and fancy footwork. They were discipline. They were self-respect. They were pride and accomplishment.
“It’s bittersweet,” said Wilson, of Waukegan, about the end of the Angel era.
“It’s been an honor,” said Henry, of North Chicago. “The drill team has taught us so many life lessons, and now it’s ending.”
Hillary Sinclair Howell, 57, the first graduating captain, wielded a saber and called the commands for the alumni team, which performed admirably, despite a dropped rifle or two.
“We may be old but we can still move,” shouted Ella Miller, an original Angel mom, who said the Chief helped keep many young girls, including hers, busy and safe.
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Updated: November 5, 2011 5:23PM
Members of Plumbers Local Union 93 on Monday stood surveying their float, which sat parked waiting for the step-off of the Zion Jubilee Days Festival parade, one of the largest such Labor Day events in the state.
Atop the float was a giant, sparkly, red, white and blue American bald eagle, its wings outstretched — a symbol of the U.S., its freedoms and its strength.
About 35 percent of the union’s 1,000 plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters are unemployed. Hours for those glad to be working have been cut.
“Construction is half what it was five years ago,” said Lynn Karner, the union’s business manager.
Ted Milbratz, 60, paused to reflect on his 42 years as plumber — his craft lays hidden in the recesses of suburban hospitals and Chicago high rises. He’s been out of work since March 2009, his only fallow period since the last severe recession in the early 1980s, and he wants to talk about the importance of unions.
“You have to remember what unionism is all about,” Milbratz said. “We fought for minimum wage, for health insurance, paid vacations, a lunch break — the right to unionize. People fought and died for those rights. Unionism is helping your brother.”
“An honest day’s pay.” That’s what Milbratz wants. “I want to work,” he said. “I feel I can still contribute. I’ve been proud to help build America, and I’d like to do it again.”
While the Jubilee Days parade draws about 100 entries each year, entries by organized labor appear to have dwindled in 2011 to modest contingents of plumbers, electricians and carpenters.
Somewhere among the bagpipers, brass quintet, Celtic pipes, Mariachi, Dixieland, fifes, calliope, stiltwalkers, Living Iwo Jima Memorial, political candidates, churches and mosque, baton twirlers, horses, little people, tumblers, drill teams, old soldiers, K-9 unit, puppets for Christ and the snake charmer-sounding Shriner’s Tebala Motor Patrol, a group of about 100 IBEW electrical workers, active and retired, sprinkled the crowd with bubble gum and Tootsie rolls.
“Unions: We brought you the weekend,” their banner read.
Electrician Jordan Guy, one of 14 million Americans out of work, pulled his son Nolan and a nephew in a wagon. Trailing him were his two American bulldogs, Dempsey and Deeley, and his wife Jen, who pushed their 8-week old son Finnley in a stroller. Jen was downsized in 2008 and because Jordan earns good benefits and a good wage, she has been able to stay home.
The couple is optimistic. Jordan, who hasn’t worked in three months, is sure work will come again.
“When you hire a union electrician, you get a quality product backed by five years of training,” he said. “Jobs can come and go, just like the tide.”
That’s true, especially in construction, and Donald Carlson, IBEW business manager, said his members get no layoff pay. They have to save for when work dries up.
“Unions should get the credit they deserve,” Carlson said. “Child labor laws, safety in the workplace (IBEW founder Henry Miller was killed on the job) eight-hour work days, 40-hour work weeks and, most important, time with your family - unions fought for all that.”
Blanche Jester, 80, of Zion, watched the parade take off from Shiloh Park.
What about Labor Day?
“I’m just happy our home is paid for and we have a good retirement,” said Jester, whose husband retired from the long-shuttered American Motors plant in Kenosha.
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