St. Louis has had a long-standing tradition of a Labor Day parade hosted by various labor unions in the St. Louis area. This year, the St. Louis Central Labor Council decided to host a festival the weekend before Labor Day, to allow St. Louis residents to travel during the long weekend. The festival celebrated the strong presence of unions in St. Louis and the city’s long-standing history of being a union town. Union organization has increased in recent years after union membership greatly decreased after the 1950s. Many manufacturing jobs in the United States were outsourced to other countries, and positions in a historically unionized sector disappeared rapidly. Recent union activity is occurring in industries that typically did not participate in union efforts in the past, such as the retail industry and the food industry.
See "Over the past weekend, St. Louis unions hosted a Labor Day Festival to celebrate union efforts", Annika Merrilees, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2023