LEWISTON — Several hundred loyal union members with family and friends turned out for the 9th annual Labor Day Community Barbecue of the Western Maine Labor Council on Monday afternoon.

It was two hours of fellowship and food on a very hot day. There were a few speakers and their remarks included calls for continued support of statewide and municipal efforts to raise minimum wages for workers.

“This Labor Day working people and the labor movement stand ready to do all we can to improve the lives of working Mainers,” Don Berry, WMLC president, said.

Berry also recognized the participation at the event of the Maine Alliance of Retired Americans, which he said is an organization that is “just getting off the ground here in Maine.”

Diane Grandmaison, vice president of the new group, explained its goals and programs aimed to assist the older population.

Ben Chin, who is running for mayor of Lewiston, said, “We have an economy right now that works for rich people, it works for big corporations, and it basically works for no one else.”

Chin criticized “corporate slumlords” in Lewiston who are “hiding behind 29 shell corporations.” He said those entities, combined, would be the ninth largest taxpayer in Lewiston.

“The American dream is really real,” Chin said, adding that “you do have to work for it” and “you need to take risks on each other.”

State Rep. Peggy Rotundo spoke briefly, telling the attendees, “Our workers serve as the backbone of the economy here in Maine and around the country. We are also very mindful today that we all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us who worked so hard for the rights we enjoy.”

Matt Schlobohm, executive director of Maine’s AFL-CIO, said the Western Maine Labor Council sought signatures at the barbecue on petitions for the statewide ballot referendum to raise Maine’s minimum wage. The measure would raise the minimum wage from $7.50 to $9 in 2017 and, after that, a dollar a year until it reached $12 in 2020.

Numerous local and state politicians socialized with people seated in the shade of several large canopies. At one point when a sudden gust of wind lifted a 30- by 10-foot section of shelter a few feet into the air, Emily Cain of Orono, candidate for Maine’s 2nd District seat in the U.S. Congress, jumped to the rescue of a few dozen people when she and others grabbed poles on the shelter that was lifting and threatening to blow away.

Cain, who had attended Buckfield’s Labor Day parade in the morning, was planning to travel later in the afternoon to Brewer for an Eastern Maine Labor Council event.

“There were lots of people out there celebrating the hardworking men and women of Maine,” she said.

She was among the many volunteers serving food. Later, she circulated among the union members and families, talking about the need “to stand up for the right issues, and to me that means fair trade, equal pay, raising the minimum wage to something that makes it livable.”

Berry said volunteers spent the entire Labor Day weekend preparing food and setting up canopies, tables and seats for the crowd. Cooks at a long line of barbecue grills kept up a steady supply of hot dogs, hamburgers and sausage to the serving tables where other volunteers dished up coleslaw, turkey and other foods.

The Lewiston event, which included children’s entertainment, took place at the union hall of Local 567, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, on Goddard Road.