Union Labor Day picnic features bingo, Bernie Sanders supporters (+video)

Tara and Chad Boney were just two of hundreds who took their family to the Machinists Hall on Saturday for an indoor picnic.

The Wichita event, organized by the Wichita-Hutchinson Labor Federation, was intended as a celebration of the history of unions and a chance for people to rededicate themselves toward the cause of working families.

But the Boney family came mostly because it sounded like a fun way to spend time with family, according to Tara Boney. That’s not to say she’s not grateful for unions. Chad Boney has a union job at Spirit AeroSystems, while she is a stay-at-home mom to their three children.

“These are the people that build our state,” said Jake Lowen, the director of the Wichita-Hutchinson Labor Federation.

The hall was packed with families like the Boneys, who listened to labor speeches and patriotic music and ate patriotically colored cake in addition to lemonade, hotdogs and chips.

But the main event was bingo.

Children came to the front of the hall to touch the Barbie dolls and coloring sets, which, if their ping-pong balls came up, they could take home. The adults eyed the giant flat-screen TV in the corner. Each person was allowed two wooden cards.

These kinds of celebrations are necessary to continue to build support and community, even as the labor movement has been weakened by anti-union laws and manufacturing jobs have fled to other countries, according to Lowen.

“If the political climate is going to change, if we’re going to build state representation in D.C. and in Topeka where workers’ rights are not under attack,” Lowen said, “we can’t wait for that to happen, we have to make that happen.”

About a dozen Bernie Sanders campaign volunteers manned a booth at the event, but there was no visible presence of Hillary Clinton supporters, even though Clinton has already secured the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest and most influential unions in the country. The AFL-CIO, of which the local machinists are members, has not yet endorsed a candidate.

The Sanders volunteers said they were trying to get the Democratic candidate for president to come to Wichita.

“We’re regular people, and we’re trying to get people to know that Bernie is out there and we want people to see him and know him and love him like the rest of us do so,” said Lori Lawrence, a Sanders volunteer who has in the past pushed for Medicare expansion in Kansas and likes that Sanders is not taking big-money donations.

The Lowen family is more split. While Lowen leans toward supporting Sanders, his wife and daughter support Clinton. However, “For my wife and daughter, I’m going to stand up and back them up for Hillary,” Lowen said. “But I tell you, Bernie is giving a very compelling message, and I hope he continues to do so, because I think he is the conscience and the soul of the Democratic Party right now.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Union Labor Day picnic features bingo, Bernie Sanders supporters (+video)."