On the third day of the Labor Day Weekend we'd like to share a few thoughts with you.
First, Conservatives didn't always love the working man and woman like they do today...
"The Bloody Origin Of Labor Day."
"WASHINGTON -- Most people know Labor Day as an extra day off of work. Fewer know the holiday comes from a time when the government was offing workers.
"It all started with a bad recession in the early 1890s that reduced demand for railway cars, prompting Chicago railway magnate George Pullman to lay off workers and reduce wages. Many of his workers went on strike. The sympathetic American Railway Union refused to handle Pullman cars, hampering commerce in many parts of the country.
"'The boycott tapped the deep and pervasive alienation of labor in general,' historian David Ray Papke wrote in his 1999 book The Pullman Case: The Clash of Labor and Capital in Industrial America.
"'Workers were mad about their situation,' Papke wrote. 'They were angry about their limited opportunities and about what they took to be the mean and arbitrary treatment they received from the distant owners of the industries in which they worked.'
"Pullman workers started their strike in May 1894. The following month, Congress passed legislation making the first Monday of September a day to recognize workers. (Such a holiday had already been a demand of the labor movement, though commentators have described the Labor Day legislation as an attempt to 'appease' angry workers.) In July, President Grover Cleveland sent federal troops to Chicago to crush the strike..."
Second, Labor Day is celebrated by such noted job creators as the Walton Family...in their own way, of course.
"More Workers Are Claiming 'Wage Theft.'"
"MIRA LOMA, Calif. — Week after week, Guadalupe Rangel worked seven days straight, sometimes 11 hours a day, unloading dining room sets, trampolines, television stands and other imports from Asia that would soon be shipped to Walmart stores.
"Even though he often clocked 70 hours a week at the Schneider warehouse here, he was never paid time-and-a-half overtime, he said. And now, having joined a lawsuit involving hundreds of warehouse workers, Mr. Rangel stands to receive more than $20,000 in back pay as part of a recent $21 million legal settlement with Schneider, a national trucking company.
"'Sometimes I’d work 60, even 90 days in a row,' said Mr. Rangel, a soft-spoken immigrant from Mexico. 'They never paid overtime.'
"The lawsuit is part of a flood of recent cases — brought in California and across the nation — that accuse employers of violating minimum wage and overtime laws, erasing work hours and wrongfully taking employees’ tips. Worker advocates call these practices 'wage theft,' insisting it has become far too prevalent.
"Some federal and state officials agree. They assert that more companies are violating wage laws than ever before, pointing to the record number of enforcement actions they have pursued. They complain that more employers — perhaps motivated by fierce competition or a desire for higher profits — are flouting wage laws..."
And third, even though working America is beholden to labor unions...
Something is going wrong...
Really, really wrong...
Oh, so really wrong...
All brought to you by your favorite labor union loving, compassionate and caring Conservatives...
"Conservative ‘Think’ Tank Protests Labor Day By Working Monday."
"A Washington conservative group has vowed to boycott Labor Day because of the holiday’s association with labor unions. The Freedom Foundation, based in Olympia, will be protesting the holiday by having a 'work-in' on Monday.
"'I can’t think of a problem in society that can’t be traced in some way back to the abuses of organized labor, so it would be hypocritical of us to take a day off on its behalf,' said Freedom Foundation CEO Tom McCabe.
"Of course, if he really want to stick it to unions, McCabe’s organization would work on Saturdays, as well, as Seattle Times reporter Danny Westneat points out.
"'What’s odd about it, though,' wrote Westneat, 'is that only 12 percent of American workers even belong to unions anymore. Yet we — I say "we" because I’m in that 12 percent — somehow retain an almost supernatural mind-meld authority over the oppressed and hapless other 88 percent.'
"The organization has called public sector unions a 'disease' that is destroying Washington and needs to be cured..."
Our last thought this Labor Day, brought to you by your President...
"Obama On Labor Day: Don't Take Your Rights For Granted."
"WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is asking Americans this Labor Day to think about the rights and benefits that people often take for granted.
"In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says he's optimistic about the growing economy. He says decisions made now will determine whether the recovery will pick up speed.
"Obama says workers and unions fought for things like Social Security, Medicare, workplace safety laws and the right to organize. He says those fights built a stronger middle class.
"Obama says to strengthen the modern middle class, the U.S. must raise its minimum wage. He says states and businesses have raised wages already and Congress should, too.
"In the Republican address, Rep. Larry Bucshon of Indiana says Republicans are focused on creating jobs, lowering costs and restoring opportunity..."
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It's all part of the Conservatives' plans for us, and labor unions have no part in the Conservatives' dream of a New American Age of Feudalism.
AND if your income is from a paycheck and yet you vote Republican, you're not part of the problem, you are the problem.
Between the rabid rightwinger, the worker voting against his own best interests, and the slow thinking Low Information Voter, our democracy is going quickly downhill and the erosion of the union movement in America is our death knell.
There oughta be a law.
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"The Republicans are looking after the financial interests of the wealthiest
individuals in this country."
Edward Kennedy.
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