Plans are being finalized for the 2007 America @ Work, AFL-CIO Union Industries Show. The annual exhibition is scheduled for June 15-17 at the recently remodeled Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati.Under the title first adopted last year—“America @ Work”— this edition of the show promises to be one of the best-ever exhibits of union-made goods and services. The 2007 event will mark the fifth occasion that the show has visited Cincinnati, site of the first Union Industries Show in 1938. It returned in 1958, 1980 and 1990.
Sponsored by the AFL-CIO Union Label and Service Trades Department, the Union Industries Show is an annual expo of the best products and services America has to offer. Everything on display—including goods and services by Seafarers-contracted NCL America and the SIU-affiliated United Industrial Workers (UIW)—will be made and produced by union workers. The show has run continuously for nearly 70 years, with the exception of the World War II years when operations were suspended.
Coming off a successful 2006 event in Cleveland in which 10 SIU/UIW-contracted companies displayed their products and services for more than 200,000 show-goers, the 2007 show will feature an even larger display of union-made-in-America items. Cars and trucks from the big-three auto makers—Ford, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler —as well as thousands of appliances, household products, boats, motorcycles, clothing, consumer goods, and food products will be available for public scrutiny. Craft booths will feature live demonstrations of skills and crafts by iron workers, bricklayers, cement masons, roofers, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and many others.
Trainers from dozens of apprenticeship programs will be on hand to talk about craft careers. Exhibition booths staffed by union workers will be spread across the Duke Center’s 200,000 square foot hall.
Guests are invited to participate in free raffles which are slated to be conducted throughout the three-day show. Typically, those raffles include bags of groceries, electronic products, appliances, automotive products, sporting equipment, autos and a spectacular Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
The Cincinnati location should provide easy access for visitors from nearby communities in Kentucky and Indiana as well as major metropolitan areas throughout Ohio.
“We are delighted with the support we are getting from the Cincinnati Central Labor Council and sister labor councils throughout the region,” said Charles Mercer, Union Label and Service Trades Department president. “We look forward to working again with the Ohio AFL-CIO, the same great people who made our Cleveland show last year such a hit. With their continued assistance, we will make this one of the most successful shows ever.”
The show will be free of charge and open to the pubic. Show hours are from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday.
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