A vivid blue sky and bright sunshine blessed the tens of thousands of union members and assorted politicians who made their way through Downtown Pittsburgh yesterday. But as the marchers and the elements combined to celebrate the American labor movement, the victims of crueler weather were on some minds.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Laura Wade , an organizer with the Service Employees Union International Local 1199, says "Noah" is her 'Union Pug" as she carries him through the Labor Day parade yesterday. Click photo for larger image. Related coverage Rendell: Lift minimum wage by $2

Volunteers circulated along the parade route carrying buckets for donations to hurricane relief. As they waited in the foreground of Mellon Arena, Bishop Donald Wuerl and Gov. Ed Rendell quietly discussed plans for welcoming a wave of Katrina refugees to Pittsburgh and other sites in the state in coming weeks.

Rendell said later that his office has worked with County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and federal officials to try to ensure a glitch-free welcome to the state's share of hurricane evacuees.

"I think we're recommending to [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] no more than 300 people coming to Pittsburgh this week, and a greater amount in Philadelphia," Rendell said. "The key is to get it right. The temptation is to say, 'Send us everyone you need,' but we don't want their experience in Pennsylvania to be an unsatisfactory one. We're taking these people with the idea that they might be with us for four or five or six months."

Rendell said based on his contacts with federal officials, he expected that FEMA or other agencies would supply hurricane victims with housing vouchers and cash grants of $10,000 or more to help support them through their involuntary exile. He said the state Department of Education had advised local school districts to waive waiting periods and residency requirements to allow any Gulf Coast students to find places in schools.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette A small child sleeps in his wagon as the Communication Workers of American march down the Boulevard of the Allies yesterday during the Labor Day parade. Click photo for larger image.

Rendell spoke as contingents from more than 200 labor organizations took more than 2 1/2 hours to parade past the reviewing stand outside the United Steelworkers Building. The parade is considered the unofficial beginning of the fall campaign season, but this year there was more focus on the elections of 2006 than the offices on the ballot this November. There are no truly competitive high-profile contests among the municipal and judicial races nearing their home stretches.

The Democratic nominee for mayor of Pittsburgh, former City Council President Bob O'Connor, is an overwhelming favorite against Joe Weinroth, the Republican contender who marched blocks behind him in the mile-long procession. The march gave O'Connor a chance to test the new left knee doctors gave him in an operation after the May primary.

"It's doing great," he said.

Most attention was directed beyond the immediate political horizon to next year's statewide races, when Rendell is up for re-election along with Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum. The two-term Republican's anticipated challenger, state Treasurer Bob Casey, joined Rendell in the parade's front rank, along with Wuerl, O'Connor, Onorato, Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle and Jack Shea, president of the Allegheny County Labor Council.

The end-of-summer fete is intended as a celebration of the clout of the labor movement, and the long march of workers was impressive on its own terms, but it could not obscure the fact that the labor movement has been battered by a steadily declining presence in the American workplace -- from a peak of more than a third of workers decades ago to just under 13 percent today.

The event came only weeks after a major schism in the national AFL-CIO, with major groups including the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union abandoning the umbrella organization. No symptoms of that rift were apparent yesterday, as members of AFL-CIO affiliates and dissidents marched side by side.

"The percentages are low, no question," Shea acknowledged. "The work is leaving the workers. This outsourcing is a problem for union and non-union workers. Labor's never had it easy but we're ready to fight for workers' rights."

As one marcher observed, though, not every union or political tradition endures.

"Do you realize this is a historic day?" asked Jean Milko, the Allegheny County jury commissioner whose office was slated for elimination in a countywide referendum. "This is the last year jury commissioner signs will be carried in the Labor Day parade."