Free Republic

Once, it was a Labor Day tradition for Democrats to go to Cadillac Square in Detroit to launch their campaigns in that forge and furnace of American democracy, the greatest industrial center on earth. Democrats may still honor the tradition. But Detroit is not what she was, not remotely. And neither is America. Not so long ago, we made all the shoes and clothes we wore, the motorcycles and cars we drove, the radios we listened to, the TV sets we watched, the home and office calculators and computers we used. No more. Much of what we buy is no...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is issuing an open letter to Congress and the White House calling for measures designed to increase employment, including greater oil drilling, quick road and bridge construction and temporary corporate tax breaks.

Today at a labor rally in Detroit, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa Jr. declared war on the Tea Party and rallied the crowd to “take the son’s of b#$%$$ out.” He implored the President to use his vast resources and that the unions were Mr. Obama’s “army” and that they were “ready to march”. It is unclear if Mr. Hoffa was calling for violence against those that believe in free market labor or the Tea Party, but using the standard much of the press applies to the Tea Party one could only assume that Mr. Hoffa was calling for armed resistance...

(CBS News) DETROIT - President Barack Obama called for an end to "Washington games" and for Congressional Republicans to support initiatives to promote job creation benefiting the middle class. Speaking to a Labor Day rally in Detroit, a city he said had been "to heck and back," Mr. Obama challenged Congressional Republicans to put the country ahead of party. In a preview of his speech Thursday to a joint session of Congress, Mr. Obama proposed boosting construction and infrastructure projects - and included some finger-wagging at critics. "We have more than one million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty...

If you still have a good job, you certainly have something to celebrate on Labor Day 2011. So far you have survived the decline of the U.S. economy. But your day may be coming soon. This weekend, there will be millions of Americans that will not be doing any celebrating. They are not enjoying a break from their jobs because they don't have any jobs. In fact, it seems kind of heartless for the rest of us to be celebrating while so many of our countrymen are destitute. What are we celebrating on Labor Day 2011? The lack of jobs...

President Barack Obama is celebrating Labor Day in Detroit, previewing his ideas for job creation and economic growth at a rally with thousands of supportive labor union members. Obama's speech at an annual event sponsored by the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO was serving as a dress rehearsal for the jobs address he'll deliver to a joint session of Congress on Thursday night.

The DUmmies are going into Labor--Labor Day, that is--with noble visions of Joe Hill and Jimmy Hoffa and Norma Rae dancing in their heads. Workers of the world, unite! Solidarity forever! Yes, the DUmmies go all Wobbly on Labor Day. Never mind that in recent decades Big Labor, along with Big Government, have probably COST Americans jobs, driving businesses overseas or out of business. No, one must cling to one's romantic notions. So, several threads in our DUFU today, a couple started by DUmmie Taverner and one by DUmmie nadinbrzezinski: This THREAD, "Time for a Labor Movement NOW!" and...

    Happy Labor Day! September 5, 2011        HISTORY Labor Day is a national legal holiday that is over 100 years old. Over the years, it has evolved from a purely labor union celebration into a general "last fling of summer" festival. It grew out of a celebration and parade in honor of the working class by the Knights of Labor in 1882 in New York. In 1884, the Knights held a large parade in New York City celebrating the working class. The parade was held on the first Monday in September. The Knights passed a...

The mayor of a Wisconsin town said on Tuesday a local labor council would have to reimburse the city up to $2,000 for a Labor Day parade if organizers exclude Republican lawmakers from attending. The move in Wausau, Wisconsin, came after a county labor official said last week that Republican politicians were not welcome at the event due to their party's stance against collective bargaining when state lawmakers voted to curtail it earlier this year. Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple told Reuters on Tuesday that the decision to exclude elected Republicans "flies in the face of public policy." "This is not...

In previous years, Republicans have worked the parade route, but this year they will not be allowed to take part. The parade is organized by local unions, which said Wisconsin Republicans "have openly attacked worker's rights." Wisconsin politics — which hasn't been pretty of late — has made its way into a local Labor Day parade. The organizers of the Wausau Labor Day parade announced they would not let Republican lawmakers take part in the Sept. 5 display. The parade is organized by 30 local unions. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: In a statement, [Randy Radtke, president of the council,] added...

Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple: "The banning of a political party from participation at any event co-sponsored by the City is against public policy and not in the best interest of all the citizens of the City of Wausau. And therefore, we encourage the event organizer to invite all interested parties, or reimburse the city for other costs."

For 45 years watching The Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon was what millions of families did on Labor Day. The Telethon was to Labor Day what fireworks were to the 4th of July and a turkey dinner to Thanksgiving. This year the Muscular Dystrophy Association has decided to replace this holiday tradition with a television show on Labor Day Eve. The 6-hour program will still be called a telethon, but Jerry Lewis won't be there and it won't be live for most viewers unless MDA has different programs for each time zone. The program will start at 6 P.M. local...

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.

WAUSAU (WAOW) -- Newsline 9 has learned Rep. Sean Duffy has been told he is not allowed in this year's Labor Day parade in Wausau. Duffy's office received that news earlier this week from parade organizers. His office was also told no Republicans will be allowed this year. The parade is sponsored by the Marathon County Labor Council. A Wausau city spokeswoman said the city does not contribute any money to the parade. Duffy's chief of staff, Brandon Moody, released a statement to Newsline 9: "Having walked in this parade in past years, Congressman Duffy was hoping that for a...

I can't wait to see Robert Gibbs walk this one back tomorrow. Surely, some able reporter will ask him to explain in more detail exactly who President Obama was referring to and what comment met the bar for "talk about me like a dog." Video is here.

Well, well, I see that the USA Labor Secretary Hilda Solis who was interviewed early this morning by CBS News Harry Smith for this early morning presentation of the CBS Early Edition show for Labor Day. This brief interview in which Ms. Solis was asked in regards to the unemployment issue and in a special way, to the long-termed unemployed or underemployed. She goes into details about President Barak Obama’s plans to help those who are in the two above groups. Well I have an idea that I could pass along. If “businesses are the engines of growth”, using these...

Here's what state workers see when they look at their jobs on this Labor Day:Their boss routinely blasts their job security. They've endured a 15 percent cut in hours and pay, and now their employer wants them to kick in more for their benefits. The state budget situation is so bad that their next boss – whoever that is – will have to consider laying them off.It's not exactly what Vincent Johnston envisioned when he signed up for state service. "I took a pay cut to work for the state because of the certainty," said Johnston, a 27-year-old employee at...

Samuel Gompers, one of the first labor leaders in this country, said that Labor Day was a time to pledge ourselves to an even greater effort in the coming year. Samuel Gompers knew that the key to a prosperous future is to have faith in it, and that's why for him, Labor Day stood for a celebration of tomorrow's promise and possibilities. Today, as we set our minds to a new season of work, we begin what I hope will be a new age of the American worker, an age in which all of us again are free to prosper....

September 6, 2010Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 11 Cor 5:1-8Brothers and sisters:It is widely reported that there is immorality among you,and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans–a man living with his father's wife.And you are inflated with pride.Should you not rather have been sorrowful?The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst.I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit,have already, as if present,pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed,in the name of our Lord Jesus:when you have gathered together and I...

Jan. 20, 2009, was supposed to be the start of a new post-partisan political climate in Washington. To some journalists, that day was confirmation that a message had been sent that the people’s government had “declared independence” from special interests. New President Barack Obama had said months earlier that was what was wrong with Washington, and announced his intention to change it. It’s now been one year, seven months and 12 days, and the “special interests” have been sent packing from Washington, right? Well, not exactly. In fact, not at all – if you define Big Labor as a special...

Why are you President Barak Obama still living in denial when it comes to the issue of JOBS? Just in time for Labor Day, 2010, the USA Department of Labor come out with the job stats for the month of August, the percentage is at 9.6 % unemployed. It is because more of those without work are just are starting to look again. This also does not bode well for the Democrats, 60 days before a very major mid-terms.

Some early church fathers co-opted pagan holidays and turned them into Christian celebrations. Labor Day is ripe for a Christian takeover. A day that had its origins in the early struggles of the labor union movement is now little more than the last long weekend of summer vacation, a final time to fire up the grill before the fall grind starts up again. But celebrating the human capacity to work is an occasion to recover one of Christianity's most important, yet nearly forgotten teachings; namely, the doctrine of vocation. Vocation is nothing less than the theology of the Christian life....

President Obama on Monday announced his selection of Ron Bloom as senior counselor for manufacturing policy. Speaking at an AFL-CIO picnic in Cincinnati, the president introduced Bloom, who has been a senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner as part of the auto industry task force since February. Bloom, a Harvard Business School graduate, previously advised the United Steelworkers union and worked as an investment banker. "As my new point person on manufacturing, he's going to help us craft the policies that will create the next generation of great manufacturing jobs and ensure American competitiveness in the 21st century,"...

In a speech to the AFL-CIO, the president accuses critics and special interests of using scare tactics and spreading 'lies' in healthcare debate. Reporting from Cincinnati - In a combative Labor Day speech, President Obama said that the healthcare debate had gone on too long and accused opponents of spreading "lies" meant to persuade Americans that his proposed overhaul would cruelly deny care to the elderly. The president, speaking at an AFL-CIO picnic, said that "special interests" were determined to "scare the heck out of people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KonFRhqbj2I Very hard to watch.

    Happy Labor Day! September 7, 2009        HISTORY Labor Day is a national legal holiday that is over 100 years old. Over the years, it has evolved from a purely labor union celebration into a general "last fling of summer" festival. It grew out of a celebration and parade in honor of the working class by the Knights of Labor in 1882 in New York. In 1884, the Knights held a large parade in New York City celebrating the working class. The parade was held on the first Monday in September. The Knights passed a...

Here is video showing the sights and sounds of the Tea Party Express arriving in President Barack Obama's own backyard, New Lenox, Illinois, which is not far from Chicago. An enormous crowd of 10,000 people showed up today, as the Express continues to make its way to Washington D.C. on September 12. . . . (VIDEO)

Obama credits Unions with creating modern benefits like paid leave and minimum wage . The facts are that unions had nothing to do with the federal laws that created both. In fact Unions opposed the passage of federal laws that provided such benefits. At a federal level FMLA passed in 1993 provides provides for only 12 weeks of unpaid family leave to workers that work at a business with 50 or more employees. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paid_Family_Leave. At the time of the law's passage about 30% of workers nationwide received such benefits, and today about the same number do so. FMLA did not...

Conservative movement traveling toward Washington, D.C.Conservative roadshow The Tea Party Express rolled into suburban New Lenox this Labor Day, drawing an expectation-breaking crowd of thousands who decried President Barack Obama, his health care initiative and stimulus spending. Organizers said they expected 200-400 people to attend the rally, but were blown away when a crowd -- which some claimed was north of 10,000 -- gathered with American flags and signs denouncing big government. New Lenox's Chief of Police, Bob Sterba, guessed the crowd was likely around 8,000 strong. A precise count was not available. Sterba said that one event organizer even...

Tea Party Patriots gathered to protest various Obama policies today as President Obama gave a speech to union members at Riverbend/ Coney Island in Cincinnati, Ohio. Nearly 200 people gathered along Kellogg Ave. as Obama came and went today. Enclosed find photos by timestax.

Under a rainy sky, Vice President Joe Biden appeared at today's annual Pittsburgh Labor Day parade, joined by U.S. Sen Arlen Specter and Jack Shea, president of the Allegheny County Labor Council. Mr. Biden joked that the parade organizers would never invite him back, noting that his appearance last year was also weather-challenged -- then with the threat to the Gulf Coast of Hurricane Gustav, which prompted him to cancel his visit. While noting that "people are hurting" across the country, he boasted of the effects of the administration's economic stimulus package. Mr. Biden praised Mr. Specter's role in supporting...

CINCINNATI -- President Barack Obama shifted into campaign mode Monday, declaring that the time for debate on health care is over and vowing to move fast to enact a sweeping overhaul of the system this year. Speaking at a boisterous Labor Day rally of AFL-CIO members, Mr. Obama led the first "fired up, ready to go" chant of his presidency, reaching back to a hallmark of his presidential campaign. He recounted a low moment from his quest for the White House to try to seize control of a health-care debate that strayed from his grasp this summer. "Every debate at...

TUCSON, Ariz., Aug. 27, 2009 – Fire up the barbies, and the flat screen TVs and join comedy legend Jerry Lewis for his 44th annual Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon this Labor Day weekend, Sept. 6-7. “I’m determined to keep fighting for a cure for muscular dystrophy because my kids deserve to live long and healthy lives,” said Lewis, MDA’s national chairman and Telethon star.

Real, as in, the people who are actually out of work: the recently unemployed. the ones who have given up, and the marginally employed … folks who work just a part time job just so they can eat. Not good.

Happy Labor Day, hope you got the day off because chances are, you've really earned it. Productivity, the amount of output per hours worked is at a six-year high in America--it was up 6.6% in the second quarter and shows no signs of abating. It's the direct result of all the cost-cutting that brought the pleasant earnings news and helped fuel the summer's low-volume stock rally. Profits are up because companies have cut jobs, and for those who remain employed, wages have fallen. Sometimes productivity comes from technology, and sometimes it comes from clever new management techniques that help people...

Hello Cincinnati. Hello Ohio. I can't think of a better place to be on Labor Day than at America's biggest Labor Day picnic-with the workers and families of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO. First, give a big round of applause to Charlie. Charlie reminds us that in these tough times, America's working men and women are ready to roll up their sleeves and get back to work.

Many of us join Secretary Gates in condemning the Associated Press for its heartless and selfish decision to turn its back on the wishes of a grieving family in order to exploit the tragic death of a true American hero. Lance Corporal Joshua 'Bernie' Bernard was a selfless young American who sacrificed everything for our freedom. Shame on the AP for purposely adding to the grieving family's pain. Ignoring the family's wishes by publishing a sacred image of their loved one proved a despicable and heartless act by the AP. The family said they didn't want the photo published. AP,...

Barack Obama declared Monday that modern benefits like paid leave, minimum wage and Social Security "all bear the union label," as he appealed to unions to help him win the health care fight in Congress. "It was labor that helped build the largest middle class in history. So, even if you're not a union member, every American owes something to America's labor movement," said Obama, whose run for the presidency was energized in no small part by unions. Obama asserted that "our recovery plan is working," but repeated that he won't be satisfied until jobs are much more plentiful. Shortly...

Coal entrepreneur Don Blankenship put on a shindig at a reclaimed strip-mine site near Holden, West Virginia, for a Labor day picnic for 100,000 of his closest friends. Sean Hannity is there, so I suppose he will yak about it on his show tomorrow. Hank Williams Jr. is the main draw. Ted Nugent is the emcee. Nugent gave ‘em hell and told the crowd to fight back: “We have the perfect president for a nation that doesn’t care.�

<p>President Barack Obama told thousands of cheering union members and activists gathered at Cincinnati's Coney Island park Monday that his economic recovery plan is working.</p> <p>"We're on the road to recovery, Ohio, don't let anybody tell you otherwise," said Obama, who took the stage as the sky cleared following a morning that threatened rain.</p>

"We continue to lose manufacturing jobs, government jobs, retail jobs, financial services jobs. The economy continues to contract," Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland More than 2.3 million Americans have lost their jobs since the stimulus went into effect, and that's a big chunk of the 6.9 million jobs that have been lost since the recession started last year. Many economists believe unemployment is a lagging indicator during a recession and is often the last part of the economy to recover. Vice President Joe Biden said last week the stimulus is working better than the administration had...

LOGAN -- 100,000 people are expected for the rally, and as you can imagine getting that many people in and out of one location takes a lot of preparation. Hours before the Friends of America Rally begins, crews continue to unload the needed equipment, putting the finishing touches on stage preparations that began 5 weeks ago. "It's a continuous show. There's no stopping. That's why we have 2 stages, so there's something constantly being prepared. While someone is performing, something is being torn down while something is being set up," says David Dodd, Event Production Manager for the "Friends of...

"Thank you Cincinnati. Thank you, Ohio. Thank you labor," yelled President Barack Obama over the cheers of roughly 4,000 as he took the stage at the PNC Pavilion next to Coney Island moments ago. This followed fiery speeches by labor organizers at today'a annual AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic in Cincinnati. This is the first time a sitting president has addressed the annual picnic, the largest of its kind in the nation. White House officials estimate roughly 10,000 tickets were distributed to the speech, which was moved to the pavilion from the park grounds because of rain. "This is a unique...

This Labor Day brings word of a new Gallup poll showing that American public support for labor unions has taken a sharp dive in the last year and is at its lowest point since Gallup began polling in 1936. In response to the question, "Do you approve or disapprove of labor unions?" just 48 percent of respondents said they approve, while 45 percent said they disapprove. That's a steep fall from August 2008, when the numbers were 59 percent approve, 31 percent disapprove, and it's the first time approval of unions has ever fallen below 50 percent. Before this year,...

The president is getting a lot of flack these days for a cardinal sin of politics — overreach. Yes, he spent too much and tried to aggrandize too much federal power. But he’s not alone, of course. Lots of groups and politicians are guilty of overreach and it’s gotten them, like the president, in a heap of trouble. Chief among them is Big Labor. Big Labor contributed tens of millions (hundreds of millions if your count state and local races and all that phone banking help) to elect Barack Obama and Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. At the...

This is not a celebratory Labor Day for California's workers, and that includes government employees who believed that labor contracts and civil service rules gave them bulletproof job protection. California is mired in one of its worst economic recessions, with unemployment approaching 12 percent and likely to rise higher, but even those with jobs are often pinched by wage freezes and reductions, furloughs and cuts in fringe benefits. The jobless rate is twice as high as it was a year ago, the California Budget Project points out, and the recession has wiped out the state's employment gains in the last...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is tapping a member of his auto industry task force to advise him on manufacturing. Obama chose a Labor Day union picnic as the backdrop to announce his selection of Ron Bloom as senior counselor for manufacturing policy. Bloom planned to travel to Cincinnati with Obama for an afternoon announcement at the AFL-CIO event. Bloom was senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as part of the auto industry task force since February. Bloom, a Harvard Business School graduate, previously advised the United Steelworkers union and worked as an investment banker. Bloom will work with...

President Barack Obama is tapping a member of his auto industry task force to advise him on manufacturing. Obama chose a Labor Day union picnic on Monday as the backdrop to announce his selection of Ron Bloom as senior counselor for manufacturing policy. Bloom planned to travel to Cincinnati with Obama for an afternoon announcement at the AFL-CIO event.