Stop Vilifying American Labor - A Labor Day Message

Monday, September 5th, is Labor Day, a day designated to celebrate the American worker.  Yet, we have very little celebrate this year.  Legislatures around the nation have curtailed or eliminated the right of civil servants (public employees) to collectively bargain.  The month of August showed a net gain of zero jobs, nationally and it is projected that unemployment will remain above six percent until at least 2014.  In Arizona we have seen the refusal of the Republican super majority in the legislature to pass legislation that would have extended federally funded unemployment benefits.

We have a president who has shown no real love organized labor or American workers, preferring to "play nice" with the Republicans in Congress.  In fact, the only time President Obama seems to have a backbone is when he is scolding us liberals for not supporting him and his Milton Friedman economic policies.  I actually don't want President Obama to do any type of a speech regarding jobs, because its just a waste of time.  We all know that he will "compromise" everything away in regards to real job creation.

But labor isn't just under attack by politicians.  Mr. Bill Tennant of Sun City West wrote in a Letter to the Editor:

We will soon observe Labor Day, which was set aside primarily to celebrate and honor the so-called working class in America.

This is a great, rightful and noble cause.

Before my retirement, I was a member for some time of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the Teamsters Union.

My wife and I later operated our own very successful business for 17 years, until she passed away. So, as you can see, I have had adequate experience on both sides of the fence.

Conclusion: Neither labor nor management can even begin to prosper without the other.

So, why don't we be fair and equal about it and have something like "Labor/Management Day" to give honor to both?

For both labor and management absolutely deserve top honors in the total scheme of things.

Basically Mr. Tennant is saying that we need to stop picking on management and celebrate how benevolent management has always been.  What a fucking load of bullshit.  Management doesn't care about labor, except for its costs.  If management actually cared about the average worker, they wouldn't be trying to offshore as many jobs as possible.  If management actually cared about the average worker, they would reduce their own salaries, stock options and stock warrants.

No, we need to get back to celebrating American labor, not vilifying it.