Detroit — United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain on Sept. 7 called on all union members to support Democrats in November's key midterm elections where control of Congress and key Michigan races for governor and the state Legislature are at stake.

Democratic candidates, including U.S. Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed and gubernatorial hopeful Jocelyn Benson, the current secretary of state, marched in the parade, but did not address the crowd after the march outside Michigan Central Station. Metro Detroit AFL-CIO officials estimated that about 11,000 attended this year's event, a celebration of Michigan's union members, their families and the state's labor movement, which traditionally has backed Democrats.

"This moment matters," Fain said, speaking at Detroit's Roosevelt Park after the city's annual Labor Day march through the Corktown district. "This election in November matters."

The UAW's president said the working class needs champions and leaders willing to use the power of government to strengthen workers against the billionaire class.

"Union family, we need Jocelyn Benson in the governor's office fighting for us," Fain said. "We need Abdul (El-Sayed), Jocelyn, Garlin Gilchrist and Eli Savit in office fighting for our future."

El-Sayed is opposed by Republican former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers in a bid to replace U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township. Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II is running for Michigan secretary of state against Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini, while Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit is the Democratic nominee for attorney general against Republican Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd.

The Michigan Republican Party didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But Rogers told a Republican unity event after the primary elections that "This is a change election for Michigan. This is our chance to change it up."

Before Fain and other union leaders spoke at a rally held in front of the former train station, now Ford Motor Co.'s innovation hub, thousands marched in a parade that traveled from Michigan Avenue and Sixth Street to the park.

The parade began at 9 a.m., and the rally in front of the former train station started just before 11 a.m. Marching bands were joined by large commercial trucks in the procession down Michigan Avenue. Music and truck horns blared.

Natasha Piña-Peña, 25, Jon Hawbaker, 36, and 3-year-old Jayden Hawbaker, all of Taylor, were among them.

"Labor Day means celebrating the people who work and make this country run," Jon Hawbaker said. "People who work are the backbone of this country."

Piña-Peña, a construction worker in the Laborers' Union, said she couldn't agree more.

Hawbaker said that's why they came to see the parade. That and because Jayden loves them, Hawbaker said.

Keith and Velda Sterling, 51, of Lathrup Village said this was the first year they've come to the parade. They said they were there to see their 13-year-old daughter, Gabby, march with her school band.

"I spent years in corporate work, and unions are demonized," said Keith Sterling, 50. "But now that I own a business, I see how important workers' rights, wages and benefits are to working people."

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer in Michigan as all students return to school and public pools typically close for the season.

The holiday celebrates "the social and economic achievements of American workers" across the country, but it has special meaning in Michigan, the cradle of the modern labor movement.

The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City, and Detroit's first rally was held in 1884, according to the Reuther Library at Wayne State University.

It also marks the traditional launch of general election campaigning for the midterms, though the attacks among the candidates started in earnest after the early August primary elections.This year, Democrats will try to hold seats in the U.S. Senate, governor, attorney general, and secretary of state, while trying to gain seats in the U.S. House. Republicans control the White House, while holding narrow majorities in the U.S. Senate and U.S. Housestate House. The state Legislature is divided, with Republicans controlling the state House and Democrats leading the Senate.

Over the years, the labor movement has attracted high-profile Democrats to participate in Detroit's Labor Day parade or schedule events on the same day. In 2024, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris told supporters at a rally a few miles from the parade route in Detroit that she wanted to enact new legal protections for labor. Republican Donald Trump ended up winning the state 50%-48%.

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the cancellations of the parade during the 2020 and 2022 election years. But in 2018, gubernatorial nominee Gretchen Whitmer helped to lead the parade along with then U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn. Former President Bill Clinton led the 2016 Labor Day parade.

The parade "certainly doesnt seem like it's a priority anymore, for labor or for potential headliners," said Adrian Hemond, a Democratic political consultant with Lansing-based Grassroots Midwest, in an email. "That's a bit surprising given Michigan's early primary in the upcoming presidential nominating contest" in 2028.

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: UAW's Fain urges workers to back Democrats in elections on Labor Day