Posted on 08/29/2011 7:11:40 AM PDT by redreno
Organizers of Wausau's Labor Day parade say Republican lawmakers aren't welcome in this year's event.
The Marathon County Central Labor Council sponsors the September 5th parade. The council includes about 30 local unions from the Marathon County area.
Council president Randy Radtke says they choose not to invite elected officials who have "openly attacked worker's rights" or did nothing to intervene.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsaw.com ...
Anyone who supports the right of a worker to a secret ballot, or the right to work, or the right to freely associate, or to petition for redress of grievance, or to harrassment free work places, or to common sense in doing one’s job is a true supporter of workers.
Labor Day is a socialist holiday. Flying the flag would aggravate them. Do it!
Marathon County Central Labor Council Afl-Cio
Wausau Labor Day Parade is just around the corner if you would like to participate in this years Labor Day Parade or put a ad in our Labor Day Book please contact me Randy Radtke Pres. Marathon County Labor Council @ 715-370-8908 or email me @rkradtke@solarus.biz. Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker supporters are not welcome this year so if you support Walkers attack on Labor don’t even bother calling.
July 10 at 2:35pm
Well....I would be surprised if any of them would have wanted to go.
Trumka and Radtke are urging a return to the days when unions were strong and the labor movement’s leaders had backbones. And they are wise to do so. By allowing politicians who vote against working people to participate in Labor Day activities, unions are aiding and abetting the slick-talking Tea Party Republicans in their deception of the electorate. It is this implicit endorsement by organized labor that has emboldened the right wing to launch the worst assault on worker’s rights in modern history. If the labor movement is to survive, complacency must be replaced by action. Previous generations fought hard for the rights many workers take for granted today. Refusing to allow anti-union politicians to hide behind a day dedicated to celebrating those accomplishments is a step in the right direction.
In northern Minnesota, the roots of trade unionism run deep. The early miners on the Iron Range fought a long, hard and sometimes bloody battle against the Steel Trust for the right to organize. Louis Oberstar, father of former congressman Jim Oberstar, was one of those brave workers and proudly held union card #1. Those very same United Steel Workers won the battle to include health care benefits in union contracts. It is a slap in the face to the families of those early trade unionists that the current 8th district congressman, Chip Cravaack (who sees health care as a privilege, has co-authored legislation to make it more difficult for workers to unionize and opposes the Employee Free Choice Act) is being allowed to walk in Labor Day parades in northern Minnesota.
Bud Malone, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry under Governor Wendell Anderson, summed it up quite nicely (via Facebook):
Cheers to Randy Radtke and the union members he represents. Let bygones be bygones my a**. The Republicans and those that write cute little anti union comments should hold their own little promenade.
Kind of ironic that the folks who want to work as little as possible, or get WAY over compensated for said work, and who want redistribute other people’s money hold labor day as their high holy day.
Labor Day and Holloween?
Or, maybe not.
They get away with this because of a popular misconception that successful upper-income professionals and managers do not “labor.” Most high earners work 6-7 days/week, even to the extent of neglecting their families. If the statisticians divided the earnings of successful people by the number of hours worked,the reported disparities in hourly income would be reduced.
OK, I see room for a compromise here. I’ll fly my Gadsden flag ;-)
Probably related to the Radtkes who founded Acorn.
It amazes me how many actual UNION members will agree with this (and get violent in support of it)
I am glad Union labor force has dwindled to less than 5% of this country’s workforce
Unions had a purpose- and served it well. We owe them gratitude for child labor laws and many other things.
But when you FORCE companies to be unproductive, you shoot yourself in the foot- and that’s what they did.
Several years ago I had a delivery job in Chicago. One day I had a delivery for someone at the NEA national convention. It was like a sea of obese people.
Where ever I looked, for as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but extremely large people.
Wade Radtke
Wade Rathke (born August 5, 1948) is the co-founder of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 100. He was ACORN’s chief organizer from its founding in 1970
The New York Times reported on July 9, 2008, that Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN’s founder Wade Rathke, was found to have embezzled $948,607.50 from the group and affiliated charitable organizations back in 1999 and 2000
Rathke is also founder and Chief Organizer of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 100, which is headquartered in New Orleans and also has chapters in Texas. Founded in 1980 in New Orleans as an independent union of Hyatt employees, the union became part of SEIU in 1984. SEIU Local 100 organizes public sector public workers, including school employees, Head Start, and health care workers, as well as lower wage private sector workers in the hospitality, janitorial, and other service industries.
His work in the labor movement includes three terms as Secretary-Treasurer of the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO. Rathke is the president and co-founder of the SEIU Southern Conference; a member of the International Executive Board of SEIU; and Chief Organizer of the Hotel and Restaurant Organizing Committee (HOTROC) a multi-union organizing project for hospitality workers in New Orleans sponsored by the AFL-CIO and its president, John Sweeney.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Rathke
Yes, show up anyway. With plenty of signs promoting free enterprise, anti-union themes, play patriotic songs from a boom box, lead chants of God Bless the USA. Could be funny.
Capitalists barred from a communist parade. Makes sense.
Marathon County Central Labor Council President Randy Radtke and State Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker present Citizens of the Year awards. This year's honorees are teachers Mike Maher and David Miller.
We’ll have our own ‘Republican Labor Day Parade’.
No communist allowed!
Yes, he looks like one of those red headed Radtkes. Never worked a day in their miserable lives. Another bunch of community organizers like President Photo-op.
Excellent idea. The word “labor” to denote a class is un-American. Labor is something you do when you have a job. You perform “labor”, you are not Labor.
President Perry or whoever could do it as part of the “de-Marxification” effort, and create a coordinated campaign to examine the myriad ways that marxism has infected American society over the past 100 years and then eradicate it, from schools, laws, bureaucracy, discourse, public airways, tax policy, everything.
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