Thousands of workers and union members marched along Fifth Avenue for New York City's Labor Day Parade on Saturday.

Over 200 unions were represented at the event, which is the oldest and largest Labor Day parade in the United States.

This year's grand marshals were Hotel and Gaming Trades Council President Rich Maroko and Women's National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Terri Carmichael Jackson.

Adams, Sliwa stress connections to working class New Yorkers

The city's mayoral candidates also used the parade as a chance to campaign.

Mayor Eric Adams doubled down on staying in the race, one day after he addressed rumors he was dropping out to accept a job from the Trump administration.

"I'm the working class New Yorker. New Yorkers know me and I know them," he said.

He took aim again at opponents former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, saying they were born with what he described as "silver spoons in their mouths."

"Both of them have lived elite lives. I didn't study poverty, I lived in poverty," Adams said.

Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa said unions are personal to him; his father was a member of the National Maritime Union.

"The workers that I represent, the blue collar working class, especially in the outer boroughs, many of them are here today, so I'm paying tribute to who they are and what they've done," he said.

Cuomo, Mamdani embrace union endorsements

Cuomo brushed off Adams' comments.

"I haven't listened to anything the mayor said in a long time, and by the way, neither have any New Yorkers," Cuomo said.

He celebrated an endorsement from the Local 3 Operating Engineers Union.

"I am at home. These are my people. We're gonna march, and then we're gonna keep marching to victory in November," he said.

Meanwhile, several unions have endorsed Mamdani.

"It's been a joy to receive endorsements from so many different unions across the city," he said.

Mamdani addressed comments President Trump made about wanting two candidates to drop out to set the stage for another candidate to have a one-on-one race against Mamdani.

"There's been a lot of noise in these last few weeks, and it's a specialty of Donald Trump and his puppets for there to be so much noise and so few results," he said. "For me, so much of this is a distraction from the struggle at hand for New Yorkers."

Hochul signs bills for worker, labor protections

Gov. Kathy Hochul started the morning signing a package of bills into law that include protecting union wages over what's considered federal uncertainty.

"New York will stand tall, Washington can't screw with us, and I'm signing to make sure that that never happens," she said.

Union workers themselves also expressed to mayoral candidates what exactly they want to see change once they're in office.

"Raise the minimum wage for construction workers," Local 79 member Justice Favor said.

"Protect our labor bargaining agreements and the workers' rights," UA Local 1 plumber Myriam Giraldo said.