UNAP nurses checked the blood pressures of more than 200 festival-goers at the Rhode Island Labor & Ethnic Heritage Festival on Sunday, August 30 at the Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, RI.  The festival pays tribute to the many ways in which working people, unions, and immigrants have contributed, and continue to contribute, to our State's vibrant cultural, political, and economic life.

Festival organizer and lead singer of Pendragon, Mary Lee Partington, read a stirring poetic tribute to unions from the Festival's main stage.

Slater Mill Tribute for Labor Day

Gathered by the river now
Are sons and daughters of the plow,
Sons and daughters of the loom
Long banished from the factory room.

We stand here on a summer day
And stop the fiddler set to play
A tune or some old melody
 From Slater’s time and memory.

For all the charm that history holds
A fuller story needs be told
Of workers in this present day
Who sacrifice their rightful pay,

Who make concessions with their wage
To be reviled on every page,
But still they give their livelihood
And hope it’s for the future good.

Gathered by the river now
In tribute to our union vow
To stand alone, to stand all one
For all that’s been, for all to come.