I received a “Happy Labor Day” e-mail from Sal DiCiccio. Given his attacks on public employees and their unions, it’s a little like getting Easter greetings from Pontius Pilate.
For those that want to remember a little more about what the holiday is really about, Dylan Smith has compiled a selection of labor songs over at the Tucson Sentinel. His choices range from usual suspects like Woody Guthrie to the Dropkick Murphys and White Stripes. He included one of my personal faves too:
14 Comments
“what the holiday is really about”…
What? No mention of how the rest of the world celebrates the day on May 1st? No mention of the Haymarket? What? What about the Wobblies? No celebration of how the movement destroyed Detroit? I wonder how US Post Office workers will celebrate the date and labor movement when they close…
BTW, let’s make a hero out of some Swedish hobo, who in a bout of jealousy and insecurity over a chic got shot and possibly later falsely convicted of murdering a man and his son… My mom is 100% Swede and I remember hearing stories about how grandpa was spit on and called a commie because Joe Hill. He didn’t need a union to hold him up, he did it himself, with his own two hands on his own two feet!You have some great role models…
I just wonder if Jimmy Hoffa Jr. remembers the old “an injury to one is an injury to all” motto… I doubt it.. How many people is he and Obama injuring with their rhetoric
If you don’t like working for the man, quit, and work for yourself! Stand on your own two feet, be accountable, and stop holding the producers of society hostage. The union model doesn’t work; it didn’t work in Detroit.
If unionism is so damn great, then why is your party trying to force people into unions they don’t want to part of? Card Check anyone? You guys ask for jobs and Boeing provides them, but that isn’t good enough is it?
Detroit was killed by management which designed horrible product. No matter the cost of labor companies that produce Chevy Corsica’s, Dodge Aries, and Ford Escorts is going to lose in the marketplace no matter the labor cost. Ford in particular now has better product and is doing much better. Labor costs are down as well but the product is always key and for 30 years Detroit did not have it.
Whocares? Apparently the guys in the corner office did not and many still seem not to care.
Uh, and what restrictions were management operating under? In addition to unionized labor, they were operating under a federal government that mandated those very cars you speak of… I guess Tucker didn’t have any good ideas and John Delorean was dumb. His car with Tge original Smokey Yunick hot vapor engine would have gotten over 50 mpg…
How I long for a new Chevy Volt…
>>operating under a federal government that mandated those very cars you speak of<<
Not to mention the failed Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla….
Both made in Right to Work states or overseas…
You guys should check this out…
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150285058673435
Thanks, Tedski.
Damn. Robeson sure could sing.
Management agreed to the union contracts.
As for Delorean and Tucker. Tucker failed due to the scale needed for building an auto company. Delorean failed despite his genius because he was a deeply flawed human being.
The first Gondar built in US were built in Ohio not in a right to work state.
As for Ms. Palin as VP Cheney indicated finish your terms. Nice job by her quoting Hoffa out of context. But yes Hoffa should not have used the SOB term.
Tucker failed due to the government attacking him and choosing the winners and losers in the auto industry as they always have… What qualifies you to judge Delorean?
Sorry, I have no idea what a Gondar is.
Palin didn’t finish the term because it was not good for the State of Alaska. Her opponents could not beat her using regular tactics so they filed numerous ethics complaints which basically tied her hands.
Funny how your sides hates Cheney, but thinks he is okay when you can use him to your advantage. I hate him all the time.
I love how the labor movement complains about the business atmosphere/job market they created! Genius! Have you ever asked yourself what would happen if you guys got everything that you wanted? Who would pay for all those programs? How long would that utopia last?
All I can say is that you sons of bitches will fall to this barbarian and my like-hearted friends in 2012.
Whocares is right. The labor movement has brought nothing good to this country. I, for one, look forward to the reinstatement of eighty hour work weeks and child labor.
Whocares, I have two questions:
1. Why was your grandpa called a commie?
2. The expletive you just used applies also to us, female readers?
If someone wishes to work an 80 hour work week then so be it, I have many times and still do occasionally. I worked as a kid for my dad on construction sites after schools from when I was probably 12 till I moved away for college and it didn’t hurt me any…
Mariana,
He was called a commie because some hobo named Joel Emmanuel Hägglund (Joe Hill), a Swede, like my grandfather, was convicted of murdering a father and son in Utah. He was supposedly innocent, but decided to become a martyr for the labor movement because no one would listen to his communist BS otherwise.
Joel Emmanuel Hägglund was a Wobbly. The Wobblies were either closely associated with or had many members who were actual communist party members. Swedes, especially laborers, were often unjustly associated with Joel Emmanuel Hägglund and the IWW movement.
In 1919 my grandfather moved from New York City where he was working as carpenter to Moline, IL. He purchased a John Deere dealership (along with a sales area) and a machine shop in Galesburg, IL. When he was in NYC he was forced to join a carpenter’s union. His brother was briefly involved with Emma Goldman. Shortly after he moved to IL and set up his businesses with his brothers, his business was raided by the then US Department of Justice as part of the Palmer Raids. For probably 5-10 years thereafter he was called a communist because of the fact he was Swedish, a former union member, and since he was the target of the USDJ in a large Palmer Raid. His case was dismissed by the USDJ, but he still had to deal with being called a communist by many people for many years. Both my grandpa and grandma were big time conservatives and very active against unions as a result of Joel Emmanuel Hägglund’s trail, death, and their experience with Palmer.
As far as who the expletive applies, it doesn’t really matter, it was directed at no one, I was using the language utilized at Obama’s speech by Hoffa, and by Biden..
Correction:
I guess I should have said,
“All I can say is that you sons of bitches will fall to this barbarian and my like-hearted friends in 2012 and you can go straight to hell!”
Another question for you though…
Are you guys completely incompetent up there? With the crazy gun raffling antics of the GOP you would think that you Dems would hold every office up there…