Downtown Mobile’s long-running Labor Day tradition, affectionately nicknamed the toilet paper parade, pulled in its biggest crowd in years on Monday morning, according to organizers with the Southwest Alabama Labor Council.
The 69th annual parade, sponsored by the labor council, sent roughly 2,000 marchers and 17 floats representing various trade unions winding through the streets of downtown Mobile. Spectators lining the route were showered with the parade’s signature mix of beads, candy, and rolls of toilet paper, a quirky tradition that has given the event its lasting nickname among locals.
Donald Adams, a member of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 505, said the turnout was noticeably larger than in each of the previous four or five years. He said the parade exists to give Mobile’s working people a day to call their own and to push back against negative stereotypes about organized labor. Adams joked that despite the popular image of union leadership, big labor bosses don’t always wear pinstripe suits and smoke big cigars.
Leslie Schraeder, who handles communications for the AFL-CIO’s Southwest Alabama Labor Council, said the parade is meant to honor working people as the backbone of the community. She described the event as a chance for laborers to celebrate both Labor Day and the country together, calling it a tradition worth being part of.
The toilet paper and other paper products tossed to the crowd were donated by manufacturer Kimberly-Clark, continuing a partnership with the parade that Schraeder said has lasted 25 years. Local union workers at Kimberly-Clark facilities have long supplied the paper goods that give the parade its distinctive character.
Among the families in the crowd Monday were Heather and Dean Hayes, attending for the first time to watch their ninth-grade son David march with the Mary G. Montgomery High School band. David played alto saxophone as the band moved through downtown. Heather Hayes said the family came out because Labor Day is a holiday for everyone who works, adding that they wanted to support all of the parade’s marchers and the workers they represent.
The parade has become a fixture of the Labor Day weekend in Mobile, drawing union members, high school bands, and families each year to celebrate the holiday’s roots in the labor movement. Organizers said this year’s unusually large turnout reflected renewed community interest in the event and its message about the value of Mobile’s working people.