Lead artist Tim Kaulen and the Industrial Arts Co-Op chose Labor Day weekend to symbolically hand over to a group of local workers their new sculpture honoring the region's labor heritage .

"The Workers" depicts a pair of 20-foot-tall steelworkers created out of scrap from vanished local mills. It was installed Aug. 22 in South Side Riverfront Park.

The sculpture is located right next to the South Side's new dog park, a fact that the workers it honors would surely have found amusing.

Attendees included United Steelworkers International vice president Fred Redmond, who took symbolic ownership of the sculpture on behalf of workers.

Here's Kaulen talking about the sculptures. (That's Redmond in the foreground.)

"The Workers" was created on a former mill site in Hazelwood. The project was originally commissioned and funded some 15 years ago by the City of Pittsburgh, the Department of City Planning and the Heinz Endowments.

About 80 people attended the informal Sept. 1 presentation. Other speakers at the ceremony included Redmond and labor historian Charles McCollester.