Annual AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic goes on without national political headliners

CINCINNATI - Cincinnati's AFL-CIO will hold it's 26th annual Labor Day Picnic at Coney Island Monday without some of the national political celebrities that have dominated previous years.

With the National Democratic Convention starting this week in Charlotte, the local AFL-CIO will hold the picnic without the star power of a Vice President Joe Biden, as they hosted last year, or President Barack Obama, as they did in 2009.

But that doesn't worry local labor leaders who say there is plenty of labor and political work to do, without the national attention. As in previous years, more than 20,000 people are expected.

"That's not something that is going to happen every year. We understand that they are very busy going around to a lot of different areas. So, we're still going to have a lot of our endorsed candidates walking through the area, talking to people," said Douglas Sizemore, the Cincinnati AFL-CIO executive secretary-treasurer.

"We are going to have voter registration. We're working on that right now. We will have people sign up to do things like walking neighborhoods for the levy this year. We do have a levy on and we're still waiting on that issue number. But we are getting members already organized to start working on that campaign, along with other political campaigns," said Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Julie Sellers.

The AFL-CIO Labor Day Picnic is open to everyone, union member or not. It starts at 9 a.m. and runs until 8 p.m. Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for a carload of children.

In addition to picnic food, the picnic will offer music, games, face painting for children as well as entry to the Sunlight Pool and various Coney Island rides.

The picnic will go on, rain or shine, on Labor Day.